A Palestinian taxi triggered a roadside bomb that had been planted in the Samaria city of Jenin with the intention of harming Israeli security forces, lightly wounding the driver, Hebrew media reported on Monday.
Footage published by Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster showed extensive damage to the taxi. No passengers were hurt in the incident, according to Arabic media reports.
Since the beginning of the war with Hamas on Oct. 7, the Israel Defense Forces has carried out intensive ground operations in the Jenin area, arresting hundreds of suspects and dismantling terror infrastructure, including explosives buried under roads, intended to kill IDF soldiers.
In late June, IDF Capt. Alon Sacgiu, 22, a commander in the Haruv Reconnaissance Unit of the military’s Kfir Brigade, was killed by such a bomb during counterterror operations in the Jenin camp.
Only days later, IDF Sgt. First Class (res.) Yehuda Geto, 22, was killed by a roadside bomb in the Nur Shams camp, east of Tulkarem in Samaria.
On Monday, Israeli security forces neutralized an improvised roadside explosive near the community of Havat Gilad in northern Samaria.
“Earlier today, terrorists rolled a tire with a gas cylinder inside towards an axis near the village of Madama in the Samaria Brigade,” an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said in a statement. There were no casualties, the army noted.
Judea and Samaria saw more than 500 Palestinian terrorist attacks each month on average in the first half of 2024, according to figures Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) published on Aug. 1.
In the first six months of this year, Israeli first responders recorded some 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 299 explosive charges.
