A soldier was killed in a drive-by shooting near the Shavei Shomron settlement in the northern West Bank, the IDF said Tuesday afternoon.
Twenty-one-year-old St.-Sgt. Ido Baruch, who served in the elite Sayeret Givati unit, was initially described as being in moderate condition with gunshot wounds to the upper body, but his condition deteriorated en route to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba.
Video reportedly from the scene showed at least one attacker fleeing in a black car toward the Palestinian village of Deir Sharaf. The Lions’ Den militant group from the nearby city of Nablus reportedly took responsibility for the attack.
Baruch, a Gedera resident, was wounded around noon while securing a march by settlers in the nearby town of Sebastia, which takes place every year around Sukkot. He had been at a guarded military post at the Ganot interchange when a car sped by and opened fire. Baruch's funeral will take place in the cemetery in Gedera on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
A preliminary investigation found that several bullets were fired from an automatic 9 mm.-weapon toward the post, and not toward the march. The soldier was hit by one bullet. Troops did not return fire.
Shortly after the attack, the Lions’ Den took responsibility for a second shooting attack in the same area.
The terrorist group, which formed in recent weeks as a response to the ongoing arrest raids in the area by the IDF’s Operation Break the Wave, has claimed a number of shooting attacks in the northern West Bank. In return, the IDF has been focusing its operations in Nablus and nearby villages against gunmen belonging to the group, including an arrest operation on Yom Kippur, which saw heavy gunfire leveled at troops.
At the beginning of the month, the group shot at settlers who had held a rally at the entryway to Nablus, lightly wounding a soldier and sending dozens of civilians, including children, to shelter behind cars. The rally had been held to protest a shooting incident in Samaria earlier in the day and to call on the government to halt the increase in such attacks.
Following the deadly attack on Tuesday, Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan once again called on the government to close the checkpoints and for the military to carry out a large-scale operation against terror and to stop the Palestinian Authority from continuing to fund terror attacks.
"This government's helplessness is costing in blood. For over a month already we have been warning, begging, screaming: Close the checkpoints, collect the weapons, stop the incitement, carry out a military operation against the Palestinian Authority, which is funding this wave of terror here,” he said.
"The quality of life of the terrorists in Nablus is worth more than the blood of the State of Israel's citizens. This is costing by way of civilian blood, in soldiers' blood, and in the blood of the security guards at the checkpoints,” Dagan continued. “We demand that this government recover itself, it must go home because it abandons the lives of the State of Israel's civilians and soldiers. Change the paradigm and stop preferring the quality of life of our enemies over the lives of the State of Israel's citizens."
Defense Minister Benny Gantz expressed his condolences to the soldier’s family on Tuesday evening, stressing that the manhunt after the terrorist is ongoing.
“We will put our hands on the terrorist and those who assisted him. The operations against terrorism will continue and intensify in order to bring security to the citizens of Israel.”
“We will put our hands on the terrorist and those who assisted him. The operations against terrorism will continue and intensify in order to bring security to the citizens of Israel.”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz
This comes days after Sgt. Noa Lazar was killed in shooting attack
The attack came as the military is facing a growing number of shootings against IDF troops and Israeli civilians in the West Bank. On Saturday night Sgt. Noa Lazar was killed in a shooting attack at the Shuafat checkpoint outside Jerusalem.
Another civilian security guard, 30-year-old David Morel was seriously injured in the attack and remains in serious and unstable condition at Hadassah-University Medical Center. Originally from Brazil, Morel moved to Israel in 2017 and was drafted into the IDF as a lone soldier in the Search and Rescue Brigade in the Home Front Command.
Security forces are continuing the manhunt for the attacker, identified as 22-year-old Shuafat resident Udai Tamimi.
Recent data from the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) found that in September, there were 34 shooting attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The data marked a 47% increase from the 23 shooting attacks in August and an increase from 15 in July – 126%.
According to the agency, there were 212 attacks compared to 172 in August, a rise of 23%. Meanwhile, July saw 113 and June had a total of 147 attacks.