The IDF has cleared for publication that a Givati Reconnaissance soldier, Staff Sergeant Shilo Amir, age 22, from Kibbutz Meirav in northern Israel, was murdered by a terrorist on Thursday near Kedumim in Samaria.

Earlier Thursday, security forces identified and stopped a suspicious vehicle for inspection near the Mitzpeh Yishai neighborhood of Kedumim. During the inspection, an assailant inside the vehicle opened fire toward them. The forces responded with live fire, and the assailant fled. IDF soldiers and civilian security personnel pursued the assailant and engaged and neutralized him. IDF homefront command activated the town's alarm system and ordered residents to enter their homes.

Amir was severely injured by the terrorist's fire and later succumbed to his wounds.

The military wing of the Hamas terror organization took responsibility for the attack.

The terrorist who carried out the attack was Ahmad Yassin Halal I'tan, a 19-year-old Hamas operative from the village of Qibya in Samaria.

The IDF wrote in a statement: "His family has been notified. The IDF sends its heartfelt condolences to the family and will continue to support them."

Staff Sergeant Shilo Amir will be laid to rest on Friday at the Har Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem at 10:00.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to Twitter to express his condolences: "My wife Sara and I send our deepest condolences to the family of IDF soldier Staff Sergeant Shilo Amir, 22, from Meirav, a soldier in the Givati Reconnaissance Unit, who was murdered today in a terror attack while conducting routine activity adjacent to the community of Kedumim. I salute his teammates who eliminated the terrorist a short time later."

Following the attack, MK Danny Danon (Likud) called for the restoration of targeted countermeasures against terrorism. "The fight against terrorism does not end with the end of any operation. The State of Israel must continue to thwart terrorist operatives."

MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism party) said in response to the attack that "it is possible and necessary to pursue specific terrorists 24 hours a day, but unless the roots are addressed, nothing will change. The root is the terrible incitement that comes from the Palestinian Authority, which pays salaries for life to murderers of Jews."