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Sunday 24 June 2018 - 08:49

Three Israeli troops overrun by car in West Bank

Story Code : 733238
This file photo shows the aftermath of an alleged car ramming in the occupied West Bank. (Photo by AFP)
This file photo shows the aftermath of an alleged car ramming in the occupied West Bank. (Photo by AFP)

The attack took place while the soldiers were on patrol in the village of Husan, a military statement issued on Sunday said. 

The soldiers, identified as one man and two women, were "lightly injured" and taken to hospital, while the suspect fled the scene, it added. 

Israeli troops are searching the area for the suspect and the circumstances of the incident are being investigated, the military added.

The attack is the first since March when two Israeli soldiers were killed and two others injured after a Palestinian rammed a car into a group of troops in the West Bank.

The new incident comes amid the US push to revive "peace" talks between the Palestinians and Israelis in what President Donald Trump has called the "Deal of the Century."

Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner is currently in Jerusalem al-Quds where he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday.

His trip to the occupied territories along with Trump’s Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt followed a regional tour that included Jordan, Egypt and Qatar.  

The White House has offered few details on a plan that has drawn widespread skepticism even before its unveiling. In an interview published Sunday, Kushner said he did not “wish to talk about the details of the deal that we’re working on.”

Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, said he is “ready to work” with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but the latter's spokesman said the US plan is doomed to fail. 

Abbas has refused to meet with Trump’s team following the US president's decision in December to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel and to move the US embassy there. The Palestinians want their own future state with a capital in East Jerusalem al-Quds.   

The Palestinian president's spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Saturday Trump's team is headed toward a dead end because they are not engaging the Palestinians or their positions.

Abu Rudeneh said the US should "abandon the illusion that creating false facts and falsifying history are going to help it sell those illusions."

Veteran Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Americans have become "nothing else than spokespeople for the Israeli occupation" whose intention was to "normalize Israeli apartheid."

According to a report by the Middle East Eye news portal in March, Saudi officials delivered a copy of the deal to Abbas but he refused to open the document. 

Saudi Arabia has emerged as the central player in the US plan. On Friday, Israel's Maariv newspaper reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Netanyahu had held secret meetings in Amman.  

The Saudi crown prince recently sparked controversy by telling the Palestinians that they should either accept peace proposals or "shut up."

“It’s about time that the Palestinians accept the offers, and agree to come to the negotiating table — or they should shut up and stop complaining," Israel's Channel 10 news quoted Salman as saying during a trip to New York in March.
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