An Israeli citizen on Wednesday was successful in thwarting a shooting attack on his car in Samaria, an IDF inquiry into the incident shows.

The man was traveling through the Arab town of Hawara with two boys in the car when they were approached by an Arab who pointed a handgun at them and pulled the trigger several times. No fires were shot. The Israeli motorist got out of the car and fired two shots in the air from his personal weapon, sending the terrorist fleeing.

There were no casualties in the incident.

Several hours later, an IDF spokesman stated that the incident was being investigated as a terror attack.

Israeli security services have launched an investigation.

Hawara has been the site of multiple terror attacks.

Yossi Dagan, head of Samaria Regional Council, spoke to senior police officials after the incident, and lauded the man as “a hero who was resourceful and prevented a disaster.”

“The boys who were with him in the vehicle did not lose control and immediately reported the incident,” he added.

“Threats from the enemy do not scare us. We will continue to plant ourselves in the ground, build and grow. Everywhere,” he declared.

The IDF arrested two Sudanese citizens who attempted to cross into Israel from Lebanon on Tuesday night, the army stated.

“IDF soldiers arrested two suspects who crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory. The suspects were immediately identified and located shortly after. These are probably job seekers,” an IDF spokesperson stated.

No one was injured in the incident.

Incidents of the IDF intercepting Sudanese work migrants crossing from Lebanon have become frequent in recent weeks.

Israel in recent years has become a sought-after destination by work migrants from Africa, coming primarily through Egypt. Israel has built a fence along the Egyptian border to block the flow of work migrants, bringing down the number of infiltrators annually from thousands to a mere few.

It appears that the African work migrants are seeking new ways to illegally enter the country.

The police on Monday evening arrested a woman who is suspected of desecrating the grave of IDF soldier Amit Ben Yigal, who was killed in action last Tuesday.

The police stated it had arrested a 41-year-old woman from Rishon Lezion who apparently attempted to dig up Ben Amit’s body on Thursday night.

A security camera at a nearby construction site documented her actions. She reportedly left a note behind regarding Ben Yigal’s pending resurrection.

The IDF clarified that “the honor of the dead was not desecrated.”

The grave was sealed the same night and the Golani Brigade, of which Ben Yigal was a member, posted a guard.

The suspect was taken for questioning at the Ramla police station and will be brought to a hearing in her case in the Magistrate’s Court later in the day.

Police said the “investigation is ongoing.”

Eli Mizrachi will turn 80 this week and is the oldest active volunteer EMT first responder in United Hatzalah, and perhaps in Israel.

At a time when people his age stay at home due to the high risk of contracting the Coronavirus (COVID-19), Eli is still responding to medical emergencies.

“Being a first responder gives me a sense of living. It is a responsibility and it keeps me young,” Mizrachi said. “My wife tells me to stop. She tells me that I have done enough that I get tired from running out to emergencies. I tell her, you don’t know how much strength it gives me. It refuels my energy to know that I can still go out and help someone. I may give a lot of myself to help others, but I get much more back in return.”

Until recently, Eli had been driving one of the organization’s ambucycles. This year, the organization convinced him to finally give up the ambucycle and honored him with a new mini-lance, a compact smart car capable of cutting through traffic.

“When I began driving the mini-lance, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to respond as quickly. But thankfully, other drivers are very conscientious when I have my lights and sirens on and give way for me to get through. It is safer as it is on four wheels,” Mizrachi said.

Mizrachi, who has been volunteering as a first responder for close to 60 years, said that he appreciates being able to help others whenever an emergency occurs in his vicinity.

“It is no small thing to respond to emergencies, especially now during this Corona era. But we protect ourselves as best we can, I wear full personal protective gear when I go out on emergency calls and I go to help,” he said.

Eli shared a story of a recent emergency call that he responded to where he helped a woman deliver her baby on the street.

“I was expecting it to be inside a home or at least inside a car. But when I arrived at the address given I saw a commotion on the street between parked cars. I headed over and I began to disperse the crowd. The woman in the middle of the commotion told me that she was having contractions and was in the advanced stages of labor. I opened the birthing kit that I have and just as another volunteer arrived the woman began delivering her baby. We helped her deliver the baby right then and there on the street between two parked cars,” he recounted.

It took the ambulance another 20 minutes to arrive. During the wait, after he cleaned the baby and gave him back to his mother, the mother shocked him when she asked him if he had a cigarette.

“I have delivered a lot of babies, and never have I been asked for a cigarette by the mother. I told her that I don’t have one and explained to her the dangers of smoking around her child,” he said.

Mizrachi then said that he will likely continue volunteering as long as he continues to wake up in the morning. “As I said before, it keeps me young.”

Israel led a United Nations (UN) innovation conference focusing on the global fight against the Coronavirus (COVID-19), an international sharing of knowledge that contributed to the war on the pandemic.

At the beginning of the year, Israel and Ghana were elected to head the UN’s Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Forum, the first time Israel was elected to this position. With the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the UN canceled all high-level events and forums, including the STI Forum.

However, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon decided to initiate a refocused, digital conference on innovation and technological tools to combat the virus.

In recent weeks, the initiative received international support, and several countries, including Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Kenya, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Rwanda and Barbados joined the Thursday conference.

UN Secretary-General for Digital Collaborations Dr. Jovan Kurbalija and members of the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine also participated.

The two-day conference featured several world-renowned experts discussing the connection between technological innovation and the fight against the Coronavirus and the fulfillment of UN development goals.

A session on “The Science of COVID-19” featured Israeli Nobel Prize winner, Professor Ada Yonat, a chemist, and another session on technology response to the virus was attended by Israeli scientist Dr. Kira Radinsky, recognized worldwide for technological advancements in predictive analysis.

Danon stated that “in a time of global crisis, uniting to share knowledge with the international community is important and the right thing to do.”

He further noted that this initiative is “widely supported by the United Nations, mainly because of groundbreaking Israeli innovation, and I have no doubt that it will contribute to the global struggle against the coronavirus, and further strengthen Israel’s position within the UN.”