Arab terrorists fired eighteen Kassam rockets at Jewish towns in the western Negev Wednesday. One woman was treated for shock.
One rocket landed in Sderot, another near the Sha’ar HaNegev regional council, three near southern Ashkelon and eleven landed in open areas. The woman who went into shock was near an impact and explosion in Sderot.
Two rockets fell short and landed inside Gaza. No reports of damage or injury were reported in Gaza.
The two main volleys of rocket fire came in the afternoon, as children walked home from school, and in the evening, during rush hour.
Gaza terrorists also fired five mortar shells toward western Negev communities Wednesday afternoon. One exploded inside Moshav Netiv Ha'asara, two landed near the security fence and two fell short and landed in Gaza.
Counter-Terrorist Operations in Judea and Samaria
IDF soldiers arrested 19 wanted terrorists overnight Wednesday. Six were arrested in Tul Karem, six in Shechem, two in Jenin, two in Ramallah, two near Jericho, and one near Bethlehem. The detainees were transferred to security services for questioning.
Soldiers found three guns in one terrorist’s house in Tul Karem. The guns were confiscated.
Rock Attacks and Attempted Lynch
Twenty-eight-year-old Amir Ohana was nearly killed when he accidentally entered a Ramallah-area crossing, he told reporters Wednesday. Ohana had driven to the town of Adam, north of Jerusalem, to bring a co-worker home, and used his car’s GPS system to find his way back toward the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam. The navigation system led him to the Kalandia Crossing, down a road on which the IDF has scaled back its protection.
The crowd of Arabs around him at the crowded crossing noticed that he was Israeli and began screaming “Jew, Jew,” and pelted his car with stones, he told Yediot Acharonot. The angry mob had broken his car’s windows and continued to scream at him, he said, when two Israeli Arabs grabbed him and ran with him towards a nearby IDF checkpoint as the crowd pelted them with stones. Ohana called the two men “angels,” and credited them with saving his life.
Violent incidents have taken place at the crossing in the past, ever since the IDF scaled back its presence on the main road linking Binyamin communities to Highway 443 to Tel Aviv and Modi’in. A sign is now in place saying the road is closed to Jews, but many continue to use it. Border police at the crossing remain in a tall pillbox guardbooth overlooking the area.
Arabs attacked several Israeli cars with rocks on the Azoun bypass road, between Kalkilya and Shechem in Samaria Wednesday afternoon. YeshaNews reported that three cars were damaged but that no one was injured in the attacks.