Israeli soldier killed in suspected West Bank car-ramming attack

Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli soldier was killed and a second injured in a suspected car-ramming attack in the central West Bank.

The attack on Wednesday morning took place at a bus stop near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, located northeast of Ramallah.

The Palestinian driver of the vehicle, a silver Audi, was apprehended by other soldiers on the scene and detained.

He was identified by the Palestinian Maan news agency as Malek Ahmad Moussa Hamed, 23, from the village of Silwad near Ramallah.

The killed soldier was named as Sgt. Elhai Teharlev, 20, from the West Bank settlement of Talmon, who served in the Golani Brigade.

Hamas praised the attack, calling it “a response to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people and a direct continuation of its heroism in the al-Quds Intifada,” the wave of violence, mostly stabbing and car ramming attacks that started in October 2015.