Indian-origin Israeli soldier killed amid escalating tensions in West Bank

Jerusalem: A 24-year-old Indian-origin Israeli soldier from the Bnei Menashe community was killed in a vehicle-ramming attack close to the West Bank’s Beit El settlement, community members said on Thursday.

Staff Sergeant Geri Gideon Hanghal was a resident of Nof HaGalil and a soldier in the Kfir Brigade’s Nahshon Battalion, the Israeli Army said.

Community members told PTI that they were “in shock at the news of the loss of a young life” on Wednesday near Asaf Junction.

Footage from the scene of the attack showed a truck with a Palestinian licence plate veering off a busy highway and barrel full speed into an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) guard post adjacent to a bus stop before coming to a halt.

The suspect was named by Israeli security sources as 58-year-old Hayil Dhaifallah, from the central West Bank town of Rafat.

Sergeant Hanghal’s funeral will be held on Thursday, they said.

Hanghal immigrated to Israel from the northeastern part of India in 2020.

Some 300 Bnei Menashe youngsters are said to be doing Army duty during the current war, most of them serving in combat units.

The Bnei Menashe, hailing from India’s north-eastern states of Manipur and Mizoram, are believed to have descended from the Israelite tribe of Menasseh, one of the “lost tribes” of ancient times.

Shlomo Amar, Sephardic Chief Rabbi, declared them descendants of Menasseh in 2005 paving the path for their immigration to Israel as members of a “lost tribe”. Some 5,000 members of the Bnei Menashe community are said to have immigrated to Israel, including almost 1,500 in the past five years. Another 5,500 still live in India and are waiting to immigrate.

Nof HaGalil Mayor Ronen Plot was quoted by Ynetnews as saying, “The city of Nof HaGalil mourns and grieves the loss of Staff Sgt. Hanghal. Gideon was a member of the Bnei Menashe community, which is very dear to my heart—good, humble and patriotic people.” 

The attack follows a series of attempted suicide bombings and shooting incidents emanating from the West Bank and claimed by Islamic Hamas.

Hamas on October 7 last year launched an attack on Israel, leading to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Israel has said that it is stepping up its counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank claiming that Iran-backed groups are smuggling weapons into the area from Jordan and trying to carry out attacks in Israeli territory.

The Palestinian health ministry in the West Bank on Wednesday said that five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tubas overnight.

Another two people were injured by Israeli fire, one critically, as troops raided Tubas and the neighbouring town of Tammun, Palestinian state agency Wafa reported. The IDF confirmed the airstrikes, once a rare occurrence in the West Bank, saying it targeted members of a terror cell.

The IDF has carried out more than 70 airstrikes in the West Bank since October 7, using drones, attack helicopters, and fighter jets.

Local media reports have been eluding that the Israeli defence brass is increasingly worried that the violence in the West Bank could swell into a major conflagration.

The spiralling violence has also been fuelled by hardline Israeli settlers in the central and northern West Bank who have carried out several attacks on Palestinians in recent weeks, including a fiery rampage on a village last month in which a Palestinian man was killed while trying to confront the rioters.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) health ministry has claimed that more than 670 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since October 7 in the West Bank, which is under the PA control.

The IDF has said that the vast majority of those dead were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or terrorists carrying out attacks.

Israel is said to have also arrested some 5,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank over the last eleven months, including more than 2,000 said to be linked to Hamas.