The Army of Tidings cell of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades announced that it carried out Wednesday afternoon's shooting attack near Ariel in Samaria. A 20-year-old soldier was seriously wounded and a second person was lightly wounded by gunfire from a passing car as they apparently were waiting at a hitchhiking station.
Al Aksa is allied with the Fatah movement, headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The cell said the attack was in revenge for the death of an Islamic Jihad terrorist who died in this week's prison riot in a southern Negev prison.
Medics rushed the soldier by helicopter to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva. He suffered several bullet wounds in the lower part of his body. Security forces said they have located the terrorists' car, which had been set on fire.