BICOM

Two terror attacks were prevented by security forces yesterday in the West Bank.

In the first incident a Palestinian man, later named as 24-year-old Hussien Salem Abu Gosh from Qalandiya, drove a car into Israelis at a bus stop and popular hitchhiking post in the settlement.

No Israelis were injured, as concrete blocks had been installed to protect against such attacks. Soldiers on the scene opened fire and killed Abu Gosh, who was found to have a knife in his possession, indicating he was also planning to stab victims.

In a statement, the IDF said “the terrorist veered from the road and crashed into the bus station where soldiers and citizens were standing” and that they were treating the incident as a “suspected car attack”.

Several hours later, shots were fired from a car at an IDF guard post near Halamish in the West Bank. No soldiers were injured and troops returned fire, seriously wounding the attacker. An improvised ‘Carlo’ rifle was found in the attacker’s car.

Also yesterday, a number of Molotov Cocktails were thrown at Kibbutz Migdal Oz in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank. Three firefighting teams were called to extinguish the flames.

In the same morning, in a failed attempt, a car crashed through the Hizma checkpoint in the Jerusalem area. Israeli forces scoured the area for the vehicle after the driver managed to flee the scene.

Following the attacks, and as part of the ongoing efforts against illegal weapons manufacturing and trafficking in the West Bank, security forces uncovered and seized eight weapons manufacturing machines at a warehouse in Hebron overnight.

During 2016, Israeli forces succeeded in closing down 40 weapons-making workshops in the West Bank and confiscated more than 420 guns in raids. Since October 2015, a series of Palestinian attacks have killed at least 42 people.