Truck-Ramming Attack Victim Dies, Identified as Reservist

Jerusalem, 11 September, 2024 (TPS) -- It has been cleared for publication that Staff Sergeant Geri Gideon Hanghal, a 24-year-old reservist was killed in a Palestinian truck-ramming attack on Wednesday morning.

Hanghal was critically injured when a Palestinian driver rammed a gas truck into a bus stop near the community of Givat Assaf.

Security footage circulating on social media showed the gas tank truck with Palestinian license plates veering off the road and accelerating towards the bus stop, crashing into the side of a hill behind the bus stop. The driver of a car behind the truck was seen running towards the front of the truck while appearing to reach for a gun at his side.

The terrorist, Hayil Dhaifallah, 58, from the town of Rafat near Shechem (Nablus), was shot by a motorist and other soldiers and is currently in serious condition at a hospital in Jerusalem. Security forces have visited Dhaifallah’s home to assess it for possible demolition.

In response to this attack, Minister Orit Strook of the Religious Zionist Party called for the immediate restoration of security measures:

“It’s time to reinstate the checkpoints established after the October 7th attack. This is a matter of common sense, not a strategic overhaul. How long can we continue to tolerate these ‘highways of death’?” she said, emphasizing the need to restore the checkpoints recently removed from the area.

Another Knesset member from the Religious Zionist Party, Rabbi Moshe Solomon, wrote in his post on X (formerly Twitter):

“IDF soldiers and security forces risk their lives daily to protect us. I have long called for the reinstatement of checkpoints in the region, and sadly, we are reminded of the negligence in recent weeks. I demand that the IDF learn from this and immediately return the checkpoints.”

The attack comes against the backdrop of the IDF’s ongoing anti-terror operation in the Jordan Valley, where five terrorists were eliminated in Tubas overnight on Wednesday. Since August 28, the IDF has conducted significant raids as part of Operation Summer Camp, targeting terror cells in the Jenin refugee camp, the Nur al-Shams camp in Tulkarm, the El Fara camp in northwestern Samaria, and the nearby village of Tubas. This operation follows intelligence reports indicating that terror groups were planning further attacks on Israel.

Thirty-two people have been killed in Palestinian terror attacks since October 7. Since that date, Israeli security forces have arrested approximately 5,000 wanted Palestinian terror suspects, of whom 2,000 were members of Hamas.