11-Oct-15: Sunday night attack by car and knife

Scene of tonight's attack near Kibbutz Gan Shmuel [Haaretz]

There has been yet another knifing attack on Israelis this evening. And again it turns out to be the cruel and sadistic work of an Arab citizen of our country.

As Times of Israel reported tonight (Sunday) around 7:00 pm,

Four Israelis were wounded Sunday evening in a knife attack on Route 65 at the entrance to the kibbutz of Gan Shmuel, near the northern city of Hadera. One of the four, a 19-year-old woman, is in serious condition. [Times of Israel, October 11, 2015]

An Israeli Arab man, said to be about 20, from Umm al-Fahm ("mother of charcoal" in Arabic, a reminder of the forests that used to be part of the nearby landscape), a city of some 50,000, virtually all of them Arabs, and almost all holding Israeli citizenship, carried out the attack. His city is part of the region Israelis call the Wadi Ara Triangle, and usually just The Triangle, Hameshulash. Other major communities in the Triangle are Kafr Qara, Ar'ara, Baqa-Jatt, Qalansawe, Tayibe, Kafr Qassem, Tira, Kafr Bara and Jaljulia.

The terrorist's attack vehicle

Tonight's barbarism began with him driving his car - a low-slung, bright yellow vehicle of the sort often associated with young men in this country - into a small cluster of Israelis standing at a bus shelter on Route 65, hitting an as-yet-unnamed 19-year-old woman, and running her over. (There are reports she was wearing army uniform - presumably because like most youngsters of her age she was in the midst of her national service.) He emerged from the car then with a knife, and launched a vicious stabbing attack on the injured woman and on three other waiting commuters. The young woman is now in Hadera's Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in serious condition with multiple injuries including stab wounds to the head (!) and upper part of her body.

His other victims also reflected a carefully articulated political statement. In order to show how much, how really much, he and his fellow believers want freedom, respect, dignity, empowerment, he attacked a 14-year-old girl, now suffering from moderate (but unspecified) injuries; a 20-year-old man - possibly also in IDF uniform - now with light (but unspecified) injuries; and a man of 45 with wounds to his hand.

There were some initial reports that a second terrorist was involved and that he had fled the scene with a weapon belonging to one of the victims. Police have now confirmed that no weapon was taken, and there is no second suspect.

Life in the Triangle has been fraught for some time, and especially in the past few days as eruptions of passion for the acts of shooting and stabbing executed by Arabs in other parts of Israel appear to have captured the imagination of the locals:

[This past] Friday night was marked by widespread rioting in solidarity with Palestinians, and due to anger at the shooting a female terrorist across Arab towns in the north, Galilee, and the triangle area. Dozens of youths, some masked, set fires to tires and threw rocks at security forces in Nazareth, while large quantities of police were deployed to the scene. Multiple arrests were also reported in Sakhnin, while youths reportedly threw stones and clashed with police forces in Kfara Kanna.
A Police vehicle which arrived in Taybeh late on Friday was met with a hail of rocks and angry rioters. [Ynet, October 9, 2015]

Gan Shmuel Mall

Kibbutz Gan Shmuel was established in the early 1920's (when Um Al-Fahm had about 2,000 inhabitants) and has prospered [some history], particularly in export markets. A shopping mall now stands near the entrance to the kibbutz, attracting shoppers from the area and the highway.

Haaretz reported in the past half-hour (it's now 10:30 pm) that the attacker is Ala Raed Zyud, a 22-year-old resident of Umm al-Fahm.

Incitement of Arabs to attack Israelis by means of their cars and knives has been evident for months.