The terrorist who fired at Israeli buses twice this month near the Hawara junction in Samaria was finally caught by an IDF ambush Thursday.
The commander of Samaria Brigade, Col. Yoav Yarom, said that the terrorist was caught by an IDF ambush.
"As part of the effort to catch him, ambushes were placed,” he explained. “One ambush was placed on the bus itself.
"In the early afternoon, a soldier identified him pointing a handgun. He gave a signal to the ambush and the soldiers succeeded in catching him.”
The terrorist is a resident of Awarta, in his 20s. His gun was described as an Italian made handgun, but also as a 9 millimeter “Carlo” gun, which is a reference to a modified Carl Gustav type submachine gun.
He also had bullets and a cellphone in his possession.
The terrorist is believed to be the same one who opened fire July 12 and July 25 on buses in the same location, that was traveling through the village of Hawara, south of Shechem, in Samaria.
In the first incident, bullets were fired at an Israeli bus that was traveling from Ariel to Elon Moreh, as the bus passed through the Bitot Junction at Hawara. No one was hurt.
The bus driver kept on driving until he reached the Samaria Brigade base, at the IDF's 3rd Instruction Base (Bahad 3), near Har Beracha.
In the second event, a bus was fired upon in the same place. Large police and army forces arrived on the scene, and located a bullet lodged in the bus's luggage compartment.