Two Palestinian Arab men robbed and stabbed an Israeli cab driver on Thursday evening near the Ariel junction in Samaria (Shomron). The two forced the driver to a stop by blocking his way forward with their vehicle.

The driver suffered light wounds in the attack. The attackers managed to make off with his car.

Soldiers are searching for the thieves. Police are reportedly saying that the attack was criminal, not terrorist, in nature.

On Monday a similar incident took place between Ariel junction and the Barkan interchange in Samaria. Palestinian Arab car thieves targeted a female Israeli driver, forcing her to a halt by moving their car in front of hers.

They then hit the woman before taking her car and escaping. The stolen car was later located in the town of Fundak.

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon warned in January that Palestinian attackers are increasingly murdering their Jewish victims with “unbearable ease.” He pointed to several recent incidents in which criminals decided shortly before the crime, or even during the crime, to do serious physical violence to their Jewish victims.

Yaalon stated that while Palestinian Authority leaders may not have an interest in encouraging attacks, “the Palestinian media… definitely creates incitement.”

An IDF commander in Judea and Samaria told Arutz Sheva last year that the army must treat criminal attacks as if they were terrorist incidents, because any successful robbery could have been a successful terrorist attack.