Israeli car targeted in suspected West Bank terror shooting; none hurt
There were no reported injuries in the incident,
By JPOST.COM STAFFUpdated: JANUARY 27, 2017 16:02Breaking news(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST,JPOST STAFF)
Shots were fired at an Israeli car traveling near the West Bank settlement of Nili in the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council on Friday, in what the IDF said was an attempted terror shooting. There were no injuries in the incident, however, the vehicle sustained damage. Israeli security forces were searching the area for the suspect. On Thursday a Palestinian gunman fired shots before fleeing in the West Bank town of Azzun in what the IDF said was an attempted shooting attack.There were no injuries in the incident that occurred in the Palestinian town in the West Bank's Kalkiliya Governorate. IDF forces were searching for the suspect and an investigation has been opened in the background of the incident.The IDF has significantly boosted operations to thwart West Bank shooting attacks in recent months, a senior officer said Thursday.In a briefing about IDF activities in 2016 and the attacks that took place in the West Bank over the course of the year, a senior officer stated that, while there have been significantly fewer vehicular attacks as well as stabbings, shooting attacks at soldiers remain a main threat.“Shootings are undoubtedly the main challenge in Judea and Samaria,” the officer stated, stressing that “we are working very hard to thwart them and we’re stepping up our efforts to shut down weapons factories.”Security forces believe that most shooting attacks are carried out with weapons locally produced in the West Bank, most commonly knock-offs of the obsolete Karl Gustav submachine gun.The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), IDF, and Israel Police have stepped up their efforts to uncover underground workshops that produce illegal weapons, carrying out near-nightly raids in the West Bank to shut them down and to confiscate. This has greatly reduced the number of explosive devices and other weapons that could end up in the hands of terrorists.According to the officer, the IDF is “going to the root of the problem” by identifying and shutting down more than 40 gun-making workshops and confiscating over 445 illegal weapons, a significant increase from the 170 weapons seized in 2015.