Two people were wounded in a shooting attack on a bus near Nabi Elias Junction in the northern West Bank Sunday morning. The IDF said that forces were dispatched to the scene.
A 19-year-old woman was seriously wounded, while the second victim's condition was listed as mild to moderate. The IDF later identified the woman as a soldier.
Highway 55 closed to traffic after shooting attack
The shooting targeted a bus and another vehicle traveling on Highway 55, with one of the victims later reaching Eliyahu Crossing independently. According to eyewitnesses, a single assailant dressed in black carried out the shooting.
"We arrived in large numbers at the scene. Upon entering the bus, we saw the young woman sitting fully conscious but suffering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder,” Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service EMT Asaf Ilakshi reported from the scene.
“We provided her with life-saving medical treatment and evacuated her to Rabin Medical Center in an MDA intensive care ambulance, in serious but stable condition."
A large manhunt is in progress for the terrorist, suspected of executing the shooting in a method akin to a previous incident in the Jordan Valley last month, employing a roadside ambush tactic. Forces recovered the M16 assault rifle used by the assailant.
IDF has mobilized extensive units for area searches, prompting the closure of Highway 55 to all traffic. Security forces are encircling the nearby Palestinian village of Nabi Elias.
Sunday morning's attack occurred amid heightened security tensions in the West Bank and across Israel due to the ongoing war, with the tension particularly acute during Ramadan, which concludes this coming Tuesday.
Last week, 34-year-old Lidor Levi was killed and two others wounded in a deadly stabbing attack at a shopping center in the southern town of Gan Yavne by a Palestinian from Hebron who crossed into Israel illegally. Levi is survived by his pregnant wife and a six-month-old daughter.