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Four Israeli soldiers were injured yesterday, one critically, after a vehicle rammed into them at a West Bank junction.

The attack took place near the settlement of Beit Aryeh. The four soldiers all belonged to a Home Front battalion and were securing a road when a black Isuzu car ploughed into them and then sped away. All four were wounded and were transported to hospital in Petach Tikvah. The vehicle was found abandoned in the nearby Palestinian village of al-Lubben, with an M-16 rifle and a stun grenade, thought to have been taken from one of the soldiers, discovered inside the car.

The IDF subsequently set up checkpoints near al-Lubben and it was announced this morning by the Shin Bet security agency that 37-year-old Hamas member, Mahmoud Abd al-Halim Salam, had been arrested overnight suspected of carrying out yesterday’s attack.

The attack was one of several this week in the West Bank. On Wednesday, an Israeli couple escaped serious injury when their car was hit by gunfire and two Israelis were wounded in a knife attack in Hebron. They are the latest incidents in the current wave of violence, which has seen at least 21 Israelis killed since the start of October.

Meanwhile, Yediot Ahronot reports that Hamas prisoners who were released as part of the deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from captivity in Gaza in 2011, are organising and operating terror cells in the West Bank from afar. Those who were released were deported to Turkey, Qatar and Gaza. According to Yediot Ahronot, several are recruiting, organising and funding cells in the West Bank, which are currently instigating clashes with Israeli forces. However, the operation, which is reportedly coordinated by Turkey-based Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri is building the capability to carry out suicide bomb attacks. Hamas is already thought to have a significant presence in Nablus and particularly in Hebron, which has seen some of the worst violence during the past two months.