A 24-year-old Indian-origin Israeli soldier was killed in a vehicle-ramming attack close to the West Bank’s Beit El settlement, Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said on Thursday, September 12.
The deceased was identified as Staff Sergeant Geri Gideon Hanghal, a resident of Nof HaGalil and a soldier in the Kfir Brigade’s Nahshon Battalion.
According to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) Hanghal, belonging to the Bnei Menashe community was struck by a fuel tanker, which took place close to Ramallah.
Footage from the scene of the attack showed a truck with a Palestinian license plate veering off a busy highway and barrel full speed into an IDF guard post adjacent to a bus stop before coming to a halt.
Israeli security sources identified the suspect in the vehicle-ramming attack as 58-year-old Hayil Dhaifallah, from the town of Rafat in the central West Bank.
Hanghal hailing from the Indian north-eastern states of Manipur and Mizoram immigrated to Israel from northeast India in 2020.
Shlomo Amar, Sephardic Chief Rabbi, declared them descendants of Manasseh in 2005 paving the path for their immigration to Israel as members of a “lost tribe”.
Some 5,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community are said to have immigrated to Israel, including almost 1,500 in the past five years. Another 5,500 still live in India and are waiting to immigrate.
The incident follows a series of Israelis disastrous attacks in the past two days in occupied territories of Gaza.
In one incident, the Israelis bombed 20 tents on September 10 which were sheltering displaced civilians in Mawis Khan Younis in southern Gaza, resulting in the killing of at least 40 Palestinians and 60 others wounded.
“Israeli warplanes launched rockets at tents housing displaced Palestinians at the entrance to Muwasi in Khan Younis, causing widespread destruction and resulting in numerous casualties,” Palestinian medics told Xinhua news agency.
Images and video clips that surfaced on social media platforms depicted the grim aftermath, with several mutilated bodies of the civilians recovered from beneath the rubble of bombed homes.
In another attack in West Bank on Wednesday five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tubas overnight.
Another two people were injured by Israeli fire, one critically, as troops raided Tubas and the neighbouring town of Tammun, Palestinian state agency Wafa reported.
IDF confirmed the airstrikes, once a rare occurrence in the West Bank, saying it targeted members of a terror cell.
The IDF has carried out more than 70 airstrikes in the West Bank since October 7, using drones, attack helicopters, and fighter jets.
Local media reports have been eluding that the Israeli defence brass is increasingly worried that the violence in the West Bank could swell into a major conflagration.
Hardline Israeli settlers have also fueled the spiralling violence in the central and northern West Bank who have carried out several attacks on Palestinians in recent weeks, including a fiery rampage on a village last month in which a Palestinian man was killed while trying to confront the rioters.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) health ministry has claimed that Israel has killed more than 670 Palestinians in the West Bank, which is under the PA’s control, since October 7.
The IDF has said that the vast majority of those dead were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.
With inputs from PTI
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