Son of Israeli ambassador to US critically injured in West Bank ramming attack

The son of Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter was critically injured in a ramming attack in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday afternoon, according to regional authorities, one day before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled speech at the United Nations.

Neria Leiter, a reserve soldier manning a checkpoint near the settlement of Beit Horon, was rushed to a hospital in Jerusalem, according to emergency response services.

“Neria needs a miracle,” Leiter said in a statement on social media. “I believe in the power of prayer, and I believe that when the people of Israel unite, miracles happen.”

The driver of the car, 29-year-old Mahmoud Muhammad Mahmoud Suleiman, a Palestinian from the nearby village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, was shot and killed at the scene of the attack, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Hamas praised the attack in a statement Wednesday, describing it as a “natural response” to Israeli actions in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The militant group in the Gaza Strip called for increased resistance against Israel but did not claim responsibility for the attack.

Leiter’s elder son, 39-year-old Moshe Yedidya Leiter, was killed fighting in Gaza in November 2023 in the first weeks of the war triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel the month before.

The ramming attack occurred just days after a shooting in the West Bank on the eve of the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur. On Sunday morning, Netanel Shukrun, a father of six from the settlement of Alei Zahav, was shot and killed while bathing at a natural spring in the West Bank as part of the holiday customs. Shukrun’s 16-year-old son credited his father with saving his life when he shouted out a warning to take cover.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrested the suspected shooter at a hospital near the West Bank city of Ramallah, the military said Sunday. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for the death penalty in the case under a new law applying capital punishment to terrorism and nationalistic murders.

After the shooting, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, said: “The IDF is on high alert, deployed and prepared with soldiers reinforced across all sectors, including throughout the fast. Our mission is clear and ongoing — to thwart terrorism, act decisively against every threat, and protect the citizens of the State of Israel.”

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has carried out waves of widescale military operations in the West Bank intended to target what officials view as centers of terrorist activity. The operations have led to the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians across the territory and military raids into Palestinian villages.

“Terrorism currently in Judea and Samaria is at its lowest level in decades,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in early September, using the biblical name for the West Bank, “and we will take all necessary steps to prevent terrorism from rearing its head again.”