An Israeli guard at a checkpoint north of Jerusalem shot an axe-swinging Palestinian Authority terrorist Sunday morning and prevented an attack. The guard and nearby soldiers were not hurt.
He shot at the terrorist, wounding him lightly in the leg, before he could hack his intended victims. The government has contracted out most of the security fence checkpoints to civilian guards, but IDF soldiers often are stationed there, also.
Similar lone terrorist attacks at checkpoints have been more frequent in the last several months since the Palestinian Authority lost its bid for unilateral recognition as a full member of the United Nations.
The Palestinian Authority has committed itself to destroying the terrorist infrastructure in Judea and Samaria, but most of its operations have been only against Hamas terrorists.
Saturday night, a near-tragedy occurred at a Jewish community south of Hevron when a soldier shot a warning shot at a suspected terrorist who turned out to be yeshiva a high school student.
Sources at the town of Susiya told Arutz Sheva the soldier was guarding in a tower overlooking land at the Har Sinai farm, where Yair Har Sinai was murdered by Arab terrorists several years ago.
The solider saw a young man running towards the outpost and shouted at him to stop. The youth, who simply was running for exercise, did not hear the shouts and continued running until the soldier shot in the air.
The youth immediately laid on the ground and shouted he is Jewish, and the soldier realized there was no threat. The IDF is investigating the incident.