10-Nov-14: Second terrorist knifing attack of the day and this time an Israeli victim is dead

The bus stop at the entrance to Alon Shvut [Image Source]

At the bus stop located at the entrance to the Israeli community of Alon Shvut this afternoon, around 4:45 p.m., an Arab with a terrorist record attacked several Israelis.

A young mother in her mid twenties, Dalia Lemkus, a resident of nearby Tekoa, was stabbed to death, and two other people were injured: a 26-year-old man suffered light-moderate injuries, and a man in his 50s was lightly hurt. Alon Shvut is located in the Etzion Bloc (Gush Etzion) south of Jerusalem.

Times of Israel quotes Israel's Channel 2 reporting that

the older man was driving by the scene when he saw the attack in progress, then stopped his car and wrestled with the attacker before suffering an injury to his face. The stabber was shot by a guard on duty at the site, police said. Initial reports indicated he was killed, but later reports dispelled that claim. Magen David Adom said he was in serious condition.

A video recording of the attack (below) shows the Arab terrorist ramming into three people waiting at a bus stop with his Subaru minivan - a vehicle which bore yellow Israeli license plates, and not Palestinian plates (according to Israel National News). Our guess is this means the vehicle had been stolen. He failed to run them over, and is seen leaving the vehicle and attacking them, evidently with a knife. A security guard runs into the frame, fires a pistol at the terrorist who does not fall, and chases him along the road.


A Hamas radio station is reported to have named the attacker as Maher Hamdi al-Hashalmoun, a resident of Hebron known to be affiliated with Islamic Jihad. Times of Israel says he served four and a half years in Israeli prisons after being convicted of fire-bomb offences. He was released five years ago.

This was the second stabbing attack involving Arab attackers and Israeli victims today. (Here is our report of the first one,)