The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, affiliated with the Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, has taken responsibility for the car bombing of a vehicle in the southern Hevron Hills Thursday night. A 13-year-old boy was wounded with shrapnel injuries in one leg and is being treated at the Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem.
He was traveling with his family to visit relatives in the community of Pene Hever, south of Hevron, when the car apparently ran over an explosive device. Soldiers closed off the road to the community but found no trace of the terrorists.
The bomb, along with a shooting attack on a bus near Shechem, causing no injuries, represent a serious escalation in Palestinian Authority (PA) violence against Jews. However, the government is under American pressure to eliminate roadblocks and reduce the number of checkpoints in Judea and Samaria in order to advance the PA demands for a new state within Israel's current borders.