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IDF soldier wounded in bomb attack at West Bank checkpoint

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An IDF soldier was moderately injured yesterday when an explosive device was detonated at an army checkpoint in the West Bank south of Jerusalem.

The attack took place at the Tunnel Bypass Road near Gilo, which is a major access route between Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank. The soldier suffered injuries to his eye, face and shoulder and was transferred to a Jerusalem hospital for treatment. The terrorist reportedly fled the scene and Israeli forces began searching the area.

Earlier in the day, a father and his two-year-old daughter were both lightly injured after rocks were hurled at their car on the 443 highway, near Atarot and shattered the windscreen. The 443 is a major route which connects Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and has seen two additional terror attacks within the past two weeks. Last weekend, a soldier was stabbed at a checkpoint, while a week previously an Israeli civilian was stabbed and injured by a Palestinian in the forecourt of a petrol station.

Responding to yesterday’s attacks, Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said “Whoever hurts an Israeli – on his own head be it.” However, he warned that “The situation is deteriorating with the sequence of events and without drastic change, we may find ourselves in a third intifada.”

There has been an increase in tension in the West Bank since an arson attack on a Palestinian home last month killed two people, suspected to have been carried out by Jewish Israeli extremists. However, the incidents yesterday were just the latest in a series of knife and vehicle attacks on Israelis during the past several months in the West Bank and Jerusalem. They have been carried out by Palestinian individuals, seemingly of their own accord, attacking Israeli civilians and servicemen. However, terror cells were recently apprehended for the shooting and murder of two Israelis in the West Bank earlier this summer, with seven suspects indicted this week over the killings.