A Jewish driver was caught late Saturday night in what appears to have been a planned ambush involving a blocked route and an attempted physical attack near the community of Esh Kodesh in the Binyamin region.
The driver, who was traveling on a route used as a shortcut between nearby communities, encountered a spike strip laid across the narrow path and was forced to brake suddenly.
Within seconds, more than 20 Arabs from the village of Qusra emerged from nearby olive groves. The assailants began pelting the vehicle with stones at close range and attempted to open the car doors to pull the driver out.
The driver accelerated, drove over the spikes, and managed to escape while alerting security forces.
Residents in the area report that in recent weeks the route has become a hotspot for so-called “popular terror" and repeated attack attempts.
The driver, who escaped what he described as a lynching attempt, sharply criticized the military’s conduct in the area: “We warned dozens of times, asked for help and patrols - and this is the result. This is a failure on the part of the army, which allows rioters to take control of the roads. Every day, pregnant women travel here. This time it ended in a miracle with property damage, but next time it could end very differently."
IDF forces arriving at the scene following the driver's report launched searches in the area, but the attackers had already fled.