April 6, 2017: Elichai Taharlev, 20, was killed by a Palestinian driver who crashed into a group of soldiers at the junction of Ofra Israeli settlement, east of Ramallah in the West Bank. One other soldier, 19, was mildly injured in the incident.
The Israeli army claimed that the driver, Malek Ahmad Hamed, 23, from Silwad town east of Ramallah, deliberately rammed the two soldiers with his car.
Malek was immediately detained at the scene and taken to an Israeli military interrogation facility. Shortly after the incident, Israeli settlers from Ofra blocked the road, and prevented the Palestinian residents from nearby villages from using the road.
Several hours after this incident, the Israeli army invaded Malek’s family home and detained his father, Malek, 51, and his brother Mousa, 17, while the army’s engineering corps took measurements of the house in preparation for demolishing it at a later date.
Ma’an News reported that Malek’s two best friends, Anas Hammad and Mohammad Ayyad, were killed by Israeli forces two weeks apart in December of 2015.
Elichai, a sergeant with the Israeli army, was from Jerusalem. Sources: IMEMC, Ma’an News