Soldier Injured in Road 443 Shooting Incident

An IDF soldier was injured in a shooting incident Friday evening on Road 443, near the Beit Horon checkpoint. An Arab driver who arrived at the checkpoint shot at the soldiers with a handgun and drove away. One soldier sustained light injuries from a bullet, and a second who was hit was apparently saved by his bulletproof vest. The soldiers were treated on site and taken to a hospital in Yerushalayim for further treatment.

The incident occurred at the same site where Shlomit Krigman, Hy”d, was murdered in a terror attack in January. Krigman was one of two Israelis who were stabbed in a terror attack by Arab youths at a grocery store in Beit Horon. In the attack, a security guard who was on duty nearby rushed to the scene and killed the two terrorists. Security officials fanned out through the town and asked residents to remain indoors while they searched for what they believed might be an accomplice – and in the course of their searches found three explosive devices that had apparently been planted by terrorists in and around the town.

On Friday afternoon, IDF soldiers arrested an Arab who had been responsible for setting a brush fire a day earlier. The fire was set deliberately, apparently with the intention that it reach the Dor Alon gas station and set off an explosion, security forces said.

The fire was put out Thursday night a short time after it was set.