At least nine Israelis were injured, three of them seriously on Friday in a suspected shooting attack toward a bus in the West Bank, Magen David Adom (MDA) reported. Reports of the shooting said it took place at the Gitai Avisar Junction near Ariel in the West Bank.
The IDF reported shortly after the terrorist was neutralized on the scene, that he was the only assailant present after forces launched a manhunt for a second terrorist thought to have escaped the scene.
Footage of the attack
(Video: Israel Bus Driver's Union, National Labor Federation)
The terrorist was Samer Hussein, 46, a father of five from a Palestinian village south of Nablus. He had previously served time in an Israeli prison.
In one recording from the scene, bursts of gunfire targeting the bus can be heard. In another, cries from within the bus are audible, alongside visible bloodstains and shattered glass on the floor.
Scene of attack in West Bank
At 12:13 p.m., Magen David Adom's Yarkon district call center received a report about the incident. Paramedics dispatched to the scene reported nine casualties with some suffering gunshot wounds and others injured by shattered glass and added the wounded were evacuated to a nearby hospital. Paramedics said that one of the wounded suffered moderate injuries and the rest minor ones.
An initial investigation revealed that the terrorist arrived from his village by car via the Tapuah Junction, which lacks security checkpoints. He stopped approximately 150 meters from the bus station at the junction and then opened fire at a bus that had stopped there. Six IDF soldiers, who are regularly stationed in the area, fired at the terrorist and eventually eliminated him.
The IDF suspects that the terrorist didn't act alone and is working to locate accomplices who provided him with the vehicle and weapon. The investigation also confirmed that he used a standard M16 rifle. The IDF recently intercepted two armed terror cells in counterterrorism operations within the same area.
Large forces were deployed in the area, setting up roadblocks. An IDF reserve unit securing the junction neutralized the first terrorist, who was killed on site. The injured included both soldiers and civilians wounded by gunfire and shrapnel.
Initial investigation into the incident suggested the terrorist exited his vehicle in the area and opened fire toward the bus as he noticed it.
Magen David Adom paramedic Itamar Hakhamov recounted, "We arrived at the scene in large numbers and found casualties lying near the bus, fully conscious and suffering from gunshot wounds."
"We immediately provided them with initial medical treatment and evacuated them to the hospital in stable condition. Additional MDA teams treated several people with shrapnel injuries from glass and evacuated them to the hospital with minor injuries," he added
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