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Resources updated Thursday, October 17, 2019

October 17, 2019

The car used in the terror attack (Photo courtesy of Israel Border Police)

A driver from East Jerusalem attempted to carry out a car-ramming attack against Israeli troops operating near Ramallah in the early hours of Thursday morning before he was shot and seriously injured, Border Police said in a statement.

There were no Israeli injuries reported.

In a statement, Border Police said the force had during the night raided the al-Am'ari refugee camp near Ramallah and arrested two wanted terror suspects.

As the troops were leaving the area, a car sped up to the officers' armored vehicle and collided with it "with the intention of running over the combat fighters," the statement said.

The troops then "identified the terrorist making a suspicious movement and holding a suspicious object in his hand that turned out to be a knife." They subsequently shot and subdued him.

The statement identified the alleged assailant as a 20-year-old resident of East Jerusalem. It quoted medical officials as saying he had been seriously injured and taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Prisoner Club, a Ramallah-based NGO, later identified the suspected assailant as Firas al-Halaq, 25, from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.

After the attempted ramming, Palestinians arrived at the scene and rioted, throwing rocks and firebombs at the troops, the Border Police statement added. The officers responded with riot control means, it said.

On Saturday, an Israeli military position in the West Bank came under fire from a passing vehicle. There were no reported injuries in that incident near the Palestinian city of Tulkarem, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Earlier this month, an explosive device was detonated next to an IDF position near the town of Beit Ummar in the West Bank. A second device was discovered at the army post and was neutralized by sappers.

Terrorist driver tries to ram IDF troops in West Bank Document