21-Nov-15: Quietly and with determination, Israel responds to the stabbers, shooters, rammers

Kiryat Gat is home to a multi-billion dollar Intel plant [Image Source]

Far from Brussels, where security is at historically-unprecedented levels in the wake of a very real Islamist threat and so is the media coverage, Israel's daily struggle with terror-minded stabbers, rammers and shooters - impelled by much the same explosive mix of religious zeal and savage bigotry, goes on.

A manhunt has been on for most of this evening - five hours of intense police activity - in a city in Israel's south that prefers to be remembered as the home of one of Intel's major micro-chip fabrication plants:

Four people, including a 13-year-old female, were wounded in a stabbing attack on King David Street in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat Saturday evening. Magen David Adom reported that the victims included the 13-year-old female, a 51-year-old male and two other females ages 44 and 56. All were in moderate condition after being evacuated to the hospital. A male teenage suspect was captured in the city a few hours after the attack; he originally fled the scene and some 250 policemen searched the area with guns drawn, on high alert. He was caught with a bload-soaked knife on the same street where the attack took place. Two of his friends gave him up to the authorities and he was subsequently identified as an illegal worker from Hebron... Roadblocks were erected at the entrances to Kiryat Gat for the duration of the search, effectively enforcing a complete lock down of the city. [Ynet, tonight]

From Israel National News:

The attack began near the city's soccer stadium and left four people wounded. The stabber managed to flee the scene, sparking a major manhunt, with security forces checking all vehicles entering and leaving the city... During their searches, police rescued a Bedouin resident of Segev Shalom who was attacked and lightly wounded by residents under the false belief that he was the terrorist... Israel Police Southern Commander Yoram Halevi announced the arrest of the terrorist, along with two other Arabs who had aided him in carrying out the attack. The terrorist has been identified as a Palestinian Arab teenager from a village near Hevron who was working illegally in Israeli sovereign territory. "The terrorist found a quiet, dark area in the yards of one of the (local) houses," Halevi said. "He hit and waited for the right time - most likely the early morning - to escape from the city."

No one expects him to be escaping soon. 

But as we noted earlier tonight, how long will it be before calls are heard for this latest stabber's release from behind Israeli bars on the now-familiar nonsense grounds that he's just a improperly-held political prisoner?

Meanwhile, we wonder how much they understand, down there in dark Hebron where tonight's knife-wielder started his journey to an Israeli prison cell, that Intel employs more than 9,900 Israelis at four cutting-edge Research and Development sites and at two world-class fabrication facilities, one in Jerusalem, Israel's thriving capital city, and one in Kiryat Gat.