Israeli authorities have threatened to arrest a 17-year-old victim of an alleged terrorist attack while letting the suspected assailant off the hook, the Honenu legal aid group claimed this week.
The victim, an Israeli teenager from Nof HaGalil, was run over near Givat Asaf in Samaria on Aug. 11 while protesting against the terrorist murder of Yonatan Deutsch earlier that day.
The teen was lightly injured and treated on the scene before being evacuated to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center.
According to Honenu, the Israel Police on Monday summoned the victim for interrogation on charges of blocking traffic and ignoring a red light, while the driver, an Arab, was reportedly released after questioning.
The injured youth was said to have been ordered to report on Wednesday at the headquarters of the police’s Judea and Samaria District in Ariel, an 80-mile drive from his hometown in Israel’s Lower Galilee region.
In response to a JNS query, the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit stated that “following the incident, a police investigation was launched, during which evidence and numerous forensic findings were collected at the scene, as well as testimonies that were taken from eyewitnesses.
“It was determined that this was not a terror attack, but rather a traffic accident, which is currently being investigated by the traffic examiners in the Judea and Samaria District.”
According to attorney Haim Blecher, police decided to treat the incident as a traffic accident to prevent unrest, Arutz 7 reported on Monday.
In a letter to the authorities, Blecher wrote, “Unfortunately, police on the scene decided to report the incident as an accident to prevent unrest and started to silence the attack. I pleaded with many officials in order to correct this terrible failure. Yet officials in the police decided to fight the victim instead of the terrorist,” according to the report.
“The victim of the attack, as well as a friend who was with him, declare that the terrorist looked directly at them as he sped towards them, ran over the victim with full force and fled,” the letter states.
Judea and Samaria saw over 500 monthly Arab terror attacks on average in the first half of 2024, according to data published by Rescuers Without Borders this month. In the first six months of the year, first responders recorded 3,272 attacks, including numerous terrorist vehicular assaults.
Earlier this week, an Israeli civilian was lightly wounded when terrorists threw rocks at vehicles traveling on a road near Givat Asaf. The victim, a bus driver, sustained wounds to his face and limbs from shattered glass.
On Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces troops stationed in the area opened fire at a suspicious Palestinian vehicle that posed a “serious risk to their lives,” the Channel 14 News broadcaster reported. The car was said to have overturned, killing one terrorist and seriously injuring another.
The Jewish community of Givat Asaf is located in the Binyamin region of southern Samaria, some nine miles or a 15-minute drive on the Route 60 throughway from Jerusalem’s northernmost entrance.
