Arabs ambushed and attacked a convoy of cars driven by Jews on the road leading to the demolished outpost of Yad Yair. No one was reported hurt.

The Jews are residents of the Dolev-Talmonim bloc in the Binyamin region. They drive to Yad Yair every year on Purim to read the Megillah there.

Usually, the pilgrimage is carried out without army approval. Since the road to Yad Yair is blocked by a military checkpoint, the residents usually drive through a roundabout way that passes through three Arab villages.

This year, the IDF brigade commander in charge of the region asked the residents to coordinate the visit with the military. “The brigade commander called us on Friday and said that if we are going up there anyway, we may as well coordinate it, and we agreed,” an organizer said.

“On Saturday evening we drove in a convoy from Dolev to Yad Yair, and at Ein Tinia we ran into a rock barrier, and were hit by rocks and fire bombs,” he added.

The organizer said that the residents had never been attacked, in all the years of driving up to Yad Yair without security coordination. “Driving in a convoy is an invitation to be attacked,” he explained. “If the route were open to free traffic no one would throw rocks at us. The reliance on security measures and the convoy only drive the Arabs to take action.”

The Yad Yair nucleus group have been holding Megillah readings at the location for almost 20 years – since the time the place served as a military base. They later established an outpost there, named in memory of terror victim Yair Mendelson. The synagogue was attacked and vandalized repeatedly. In 2008, the IDF evicted the residents of Yad Yair.