The IDF seriously wounded a Palestinian man for allegedly attempting to run over soldiers near Hebron, but failed to detain him afterward, Army Radio reported on Sunday afternoon.
According to Army Radio, the incident occured on Friday near Kafr Dura, shortly after the fatal Hebron attack that killed Staff Sergeant Ron Yonatan Roytman and Sergeant Yuval Shai Svilem. Three others were lightly wounded in the attack.
Two terrorists were killed during the confrontation, and the IDF said no additional terrorists were involved.
Army Radio reported that while it reached out to the IDF for clarification on the matter on Friday, the military only responded on Sunday, saying that soldiers operating in the area "spotted a vehicle driving suspiciously and accelerated toward them, and in response, opened fire."
Despite claiming the man tried to run over soldiers, Army Radio reported that the IDF did not detain the man for questioning over the incident.
The IDF told Army Radio that it was reviewing the matter, but allegedly did not answer additional questions about its failure to detain the Palestinian.
IDF, Shin Bet forcibly evacuate Hebron Palestinians in response to Friday attack
Since the Friday attack, Israeli security forces have forcibly evacuated some 2,000 Hebron-area Palestinians and destroyed an unspecified number of structures in the vicinity.
In a Friday night statement, the IDF said that it had launched a counterterrorism operation in the Hebron area following Friday morning’s deadly Hamas terrorist attack. Security forces are conducting systematic searches for terrorist infrastructure and weapons in the area and questioning dozens of suspects, according to the joint statement.
The operation follows a series of counterterrorism measures carried out since Friday morning, including mapping the terrorists’ homes, sealing off the Hebron and Halhul areas, establishing roadblocks, and conducting operations in nearby villages. Security forces are also removing illegal infrastructure that could pose a security threat near the site of the attack.
Evacuated Palestinians connected to Hamas-linked Gaza clan, IDF says
However, the IDF provided little information about the offenses of the 2,000 evacuated Palestinians, other than to say that they were familially connected to the Hamas-linked Gaza clan.
It also said it destroyed illegally built structures that could make security operations harder to carry out. However, the military was extremely vague about what those operations were and why entire buildings needed to be destroyed to carry them out.
Pressed about how many of the 2,000 hamula (“clan”) members have records linking them to terror (or at a minimum, to rock throwing), multiple IDF sources did not appear to have any specific information on the topic.
Rather, the operation seemed to be motivated by public statements made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz about clearing or destroying the neighborhood of the two men involved in the terror incident on Friday – apparently a collective punishment measure.
Yonah Jeremy Bob and Richard Offenbacher contributed to this report.