The Palestinian town of Qabalan, southeast of Nablus in Samaria. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israeli police and military forces arrested three Palestinians Monday night over a vehicular attack earlier that day that left a 50-year-old Israeli critically wounded.

Police are still trying to determine whether the attack was nationalistically motivated or a car theft that turned violent.

Security forces arrested the three men in the Palestinian town of Qabalan, southeast of Nablus in Samaria.

Earlier on Monday, police received reports that a 50-year-old man had been wounded after a vehicle hit him and drove off in the West Bank. Police and medical personnel who arrived at the scene presumed it was either a hit-and-run accident or a nationalistically motivated vehicular attack.

However, it is now thought the incident may have been a violent carjacking. Police believe the Israeli man was driving along the road when the Palestinian car forced him to stop, and one or two assailants pulled him from his car. Based on the trauma to the victim’s head, it is believed he fought his assailants and that they may have run him over while fleeing the scene.

“An unconscious man was found in the middle of the road in critical condition with a bleeding head wound. We provided field treatment and evacuated him by army helicopter,” paramedic Haim Ratzabi said.