A terrorist opened fire on Friday night at a group of teenagers in the Or Nachman homestead, near Adei Ad in the Binyamin region. The attack occurred from a distance of several dozen meters as the teens were sitting on a porch outside one of the homes.
Initially, the shots were mistaken for distant gunfire, similar to previous incidents in recent months involving fire from a nearby ridge. One of the teens notified the community's security officer and went outside to investigate. He was met with additional gunfire at closer range.
The teenagers fled to take cover, and a third round of shots was fired in their direction but missed. No injuries were reported.
Israeli security forces were dispatched to the scene and launched a wide-ranging search operation during Shabbat. As of Saturday night, the assailant had not been apprehended.
“This Sabbath, we experienced a serious event that, by God's grace, ended miraculously without casualties. We could have easily been attending funerals tonight,” said residents of the hilltop after the Sabbath. They noted that the gunman had reached a point close to the home where the teens were gathered — a structure located further from the cluster of family homes — and that the teens had taken shelter “with great presence of mind as bullets whizzed overhead.”
Residents blamed what they called a pattern of security complacency. “There have been over 15 shooting incidents recently from the direction of the nearby villages of Mu’ayyir and Abu Falah,” they said. “We warned that these attacks wouldn’t stop. A month and a half ago, two armed individuals approached the homes but were fortunately spotted and fled.”
Local leaders are calling on the IDF to bolster security in the area. “This hilltop lies on the seam between the Samaria and Binyamin regional divisions, and sometimes falls between jurisdictions,” they said. “Even simple obstructions placed by Palestinians on nearby roads — aimed at delaying security forces — are often ignored. That must change.”