Son of Israel’s US ambassador wounded in West Bank ramming attack

Neria Leiter, the son of Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, was critically injured in a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, September 23, a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to address the United Nations General Assembly.

Leiter, an Israel Defence Forces reserve soldier serving at a checkpoint near the Israeli settlement of Beit Horon, was taken to a Jerusalem hospital following the attack. He underwent emergency surgery and remained in critical, life-threatening condition, according to CNN.

“Neria needs a miracle,” Yechiel 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 Palestinian Health Ministry identified the driver as 29-year-old Mahmoud Muhammad Mahmoud Suleiman, a Palestinian from the nearby village of Beit Ur al-Tahta. Israeli security forces shot and killed him at the scene, according to Palestinian authorities and Israeli officials.

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

The attack has particular significance for the Leiter family. Yechiel Leiter’s elder son, 39-year-old Moshe Yedidya Leiter, was killed while fighting in Gaza in November 2023, during the first weeks of the war that followed the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel.

The latest incident came only days after another deadly shooting in the West Bank on the eve 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 as part of the holiday observance. His 16-year-old son said his father saved his life by shouting a warning that allowed him to take cover.

The Israel Defence Forces said it arrested the suspected shooter at a hospital near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for the death penalty under a new law providing for capital punishment in terrorism and nationalist-motivated murder cases.

After the shooting, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir 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 conducted repeated large-scale military operations in the West Bank targeting what Israeli officials describe as centres of militant activity. The operations have displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians across the territory and involved raids in Palestinian communities.

“Terrorism currently in Judea and Samaria is at its lowest level in decades,” Defence 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.”

By Tamilla Hasanova