Israeli lightly hurt in terror attack near Huwara in Samaria

An Israeli driver on Tuesday night was lightly injured by glass shards in a shooting near the Palestinian-controlled village of Huwara, located close to Nablus in Samaria.

The Israel Defense Forces said that the terror attack occurred north of the Tapuach Junction, and that troops launched a manhunt for the perpetrators.

Local authorities said the victim’s vehicle was hit by at least a dozen bullets.

He was evacuated to the hospital in stable condition.

It comes a day after two Israeli soldiers were wounded when a terrorist rammed them with his vehicle in Huwara.

The driver fled the scene but was captured by Israeli forces following a chase. A knife was found in his vehicle, according to the military.

The victims were evacuated to the Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, one with light and one with moderate injuries.

The IDF recently upgraded the road infrastructure in the Palestinian village to increase security for drivers on Route 60, as an interim step until a bypass road can be completed.

The changes followed a series of terrorist attacks there, including the murder of brothers Hallel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19, as they sat in traffic on Feb. 26.

Dual Israeli-U.S. citizen David Stern, 41, narrowly survived a shooting on March 19 while he was driving through Huwara with his wife on their way to Jerusalem.

Just days later on May 21, an Israeli soldier was moderately injured in a vehicular assault in the village.

In addition to the infrastructure changes, a large number of IDF personnel have been deployed to the area and 13 new defensive positions were built to discourage attacks and to reduce security forces’ response times.

The IDF’s Samaria Brigade has also bolstered security inspections, including the deployment of additional checkpoint barriers.