“On the way to [the settlement of] Ariel I heard gunshots,” the unnamed driver told the Ynet news website. “I stepped on it and got out of there. It’s a dark area and there are no soldiers stationed there, so my goal was to get as far away from there as possible.” The shots were fired from the Palestinian town of Silwad at the Egged Ta’avura bus, the IDF later said. The bus was traveling along Route 60, the West Bank’s main north-south highway, near the settlement of Ofra. It was full of passengers at the time of the attack and at least eight bullet holes were found in the windows and body of the bus, according to the Binyamin Regional Council. “It wasn’t until near Shiloh that I got off the bus and saw the damage,” the driver said, adding that it wasn’t his usual route. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. Get The Times of Israel Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories By signing up, you agree to the terms “I haven’t slept all night. I’m still shaking,” he added. No one was injured in the attack. A shooting attack on a bus near Ofra, luckily there were no casualties, there is an intifada and everyone is sleeping, we must treat the terrorists as if they were victims of the attack, pic.twitter.com/JijEd2mV7c — Herzel Hajaj (@herzelhajaj) August 20, 2022 “We heard some loud ‘booms’. At first, I thought something fell on the bus,” Yuval Hadad, a passenger, told Ynet. “But when I saw other passengers hiding, I assumed it was a rock throw. We called the police… When we got off at Shilo, we saw that the bus was full of holes,” he said. “We’ll move on — this is our country — but obviously it’s a bit stressful. We have children… We are talking about people’s lives,” Hadad added. Medics were dispatched to the hub, but ultimately were not called upon to treat anyone. The military, meanwhile, launched a manhunt for the shooter or shooters. Tamar Ohana of the Israeli union Koach LaOvdim — Democratic Workers Organization praised the driver’s actions, which she said prevented a disaster. “It was only thanks to the ingenuity of the driver that a great tragedy was averted,” Ohana said. “We support drivers who are out there on the front line every day dealing with rock-throwing terrorism and passenger violence. This is a daily reminder of the need to recognize drivers as public servants and we will continue to fight for that,” he added. Binyamin Regional Council Chairman Yisrael Gantz said the shooting was part of an ongoing escalation by Palestinian gunmen and showed a “loss of deterrence” on the part of Israeli authorities. “We require immediate, decisive and deep action to eliminate terrorism and restore deterrence on the ground,” he added. Featured: IDF soldiers conduct raids in the West Bank on August 18, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces) The incident came amid rising tensions in the West Bank, with Israeli security forces stepping up arrest raids and operations following a deadly spate of terror attacks against Israelis that left 19 dead earlier this year. Earlier on Saturday, three Palestinian women from Nablus with an improvised submachine gun in their car were arrested near a checkpoint in the West Bank. On Friday, an unarmed 58-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli troops during an IDF raid in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report. It’s not (only) for you. Supporting The Times of Israel is not a transaction for an online service, such as subscribing to Netflix. The ToI community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions around the world, for free. Sure, we’ll remove all ads from your page and unlock access to some great Community-only content. But your support gives you something deeper than that: the pride of participating in something that really matters. Join the Times of Israel Community Join our Community Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this You are a devoted reader We are really glad that you read X Times of Israel articles last month. That’s why we started the Times of Israel ten years ago – to provide discerning readers like you with the must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world. So now we have a request. Unlike other media, we have not set up a paywall. But because the journalism we do is expensive, we invite readers to whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community. For just $6 a month you can support our quality journalism by enjoying Times of Israel ADS-FREE, as well as access to exclusive content available only to members of the Times of Israel Community. Thank you, David Horowitz, founding editor of the Times of Israel Join our community Join our community Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
