A Palestinian was killed by the Israel Defense Forces Thursday evening after smashing through the perimeter fence of the A-Ram army base driving a bulldozer.

The tractor-backhoe used in the attack – Photo courtesy: IDF Spokesman

When soldiers stationed at the entrance to the base, located near the West Bank town of Qalandiyah, spotted the intruder, they began the standard procedure for arresting a suspect. But when the man refused to stop, they opened fire, killing him.

One soldier was lightly wounded by a piece of the shattered fence.

The Judea and Samaria Division termed the incident an attempted terror attack, the latest of several such attacks in recent weeks. Last week, for instance, Col. (res.) Seraiah Ofer was murdered outside his Jordan Valley home. Two Palestinians from the Hebron area were arrested for the murder by the Shin Bet security service this week, and they have confessed to the crime.

A few days earlier, a 9-year-old girl from the settlement of Psagot was lightly wounded by Palestinian gunfire while standing on the balcony of her house.

Last month, Staff Sgt. Gal (Gabriel) Kobi was killed while on guard duty at a Hebron checkpoint, apparently by sniper fire. And a day before that, the body of another IDF soldier, Sgt. Tomer Hazan, was found near Qalqilyah. Hazan was brought to the area by a Palestinian co-worker at the restaurant where he had a part-time job, and the co-worker subsequently confessed to the murder, telling his interrogators he had hoped to trade Hazan’s body for the release of his brother, who is serving time in an Israeli prison.

Last December, two Palestinians entered the same A-Ram base, stole a weapon from a soldier in the guard booth and then escaped. The soldier claimed he had been hit with a fire extinguisher and blinded by tear gas.

View original HAARETZ publication at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.553099