IDF soldier wounded in car ramming and stabbing attack

An IDF soldier was wounded when a car driven by a Palestinian man rammed into him near Tekoa, in the West Bank, on Monday afternoon. The assailant was shot and later died of his injuries, after trying to stab a few soldiers as he fled the car, the IDF spokesperson' unit said.

The soldier was lightly injured and taken to Jerusalem's Shaare Tzedek hospital, with injuries to his right thigh.

"When we arrived at the scene we saw an approximately 20-year-old young man, who was fully conscious. He sustained blows to his upper and lower extremities as the result of being hit by the vehicle," said MDA paramedic Zachi Yahav.

Since October 2015 Palestinians have stabbed, run over and shot Israeli soldiers and civilians, including some tourists, in a wave of violence in the West Bank and Israel. While the violence has since decreased since its peak in the winter of 2016 when there were almost daily attacks, there have been several deadly attacks in recent months.

In mid-June border policewoman Hadas Malka was killed in an attack by three Palestinian youth who were armed with guns and knives. Malka, 23, was critically stabbed while attempting to reach for her gun to stop the attack. All assailants were shot and killed by security forces responding to the attack.

In April Sgt. Elchai Taharlev was killed after he was struck by a Palestinian driver at the Ofra Junction on Route 60, northeast of Ramallah. The driver, 21-year-old Malek Ahmad Mousa from the nearby town of Silwad, served four months in jail for attempting an attack at the settlement of Adam last year, military officials said and the ninth attack in the past two years to be carried out by residents of Silwad.

According to authorities Some 280 Palestinians, a majority of them attackers, have been killed by Israeli forces.

Defense officials have set the profile of the profile of the lone wolf attacker as a Palestinian male between the ages of 15-24 who come from six or seven villages in the West Bank and who target specific locations in the West Bank - the Gush Etzion Junction, Hebron, Tapuach Junction, Kikar Aryieh near Ariel and the southern entrance to Nablus.

In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post a senior officer in the West Bank said that the best solution to protect against a lone wolf attack is to prepare and train soldiers how to properly react.

"We are always worried that someone will wake up and want to carry out an attack, we are not able to track these lone wolves with 100% certainty" the senior officer said at his base outside the West Bank city of Tulkarm, adding that soldiers must recognize that situations can go "from 0-100" in a matter of seconds.