Israel’s ambassador to the US says son injured in West Bank car-ramming

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter has said his son, a soldier, was injured in an alleged car-ramming incident at a checkpoint west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Earlier on Wednesday, a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli soldiers following what Israeli police described as a car-ramming attack.

Leiter said in a social media post that medics “are now fighting to save the life of Neria Dov ben Chana”, referring to his son.

The shooting occurred after a vehicle drove towards Israeli forces stationed at a checkpoint at an intersection near the settlement of Beit Horon, according to Israeli police.

“As a result, the soldier was wounded and is currently receiving medical treatment. The attacker was killed by the forces,” they said in a brief statement.

Israel’s national emergency services said its teams had evacuated the soldier injured in the incident to hospital in serious condition.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the Palestinian man as 29-year-old Mahmoud Mohammad Mahmoud Suleiman, adding that Israeli authorities were holding his body.

Danny Danon, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, offered his solidarity with the envoy to the US, saying, “All of Israel is praying for your son … who was critically wounded in today’s heinous terrorist attack.”

Another son of Leiter’s, 39-year-old Moshe Yedidya, was killed while deployed in Gaza in November 2023, just weeks after the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave on October 7.