14-Feb-16: Sunday bloody Sunday

Via Israeli social media, a cell phone snapshot of
the automatic weapon taken from the body
of the dead Palestinian Arab attacker from
Arake, a child of 15 [Source]

The news focus here in Israel this mild and pleasant evening has shifted dramatically away from the events of another traumatic day of Arab-on-Israeli violence to a major road accident in which an intercity Egged bus appears to have struck a parked concrete-laden semi-trailer, causing multiple deaths and many injuries ["6 killed, at least 12 hurt when crowded bus hits parked truck", Times of Israel, February 14, 2016].

The day has been difficult from the outset. And consistent with the violent messaging emanating from the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, children are at the forefront of the attacks.

Jerusalem Post says an IDF unit spotted two Palestinian Arabs hurling rocks at Israelis this morning in the vicinity of the security fence near Arake, an Arab village north of Jenin. (Arab sources call it Araqah.) A Hebrew-language social media report places the attack at about 10:30 this morning (Sunday). An army unit deployed to the scene then came under live fire. In response, the soldiers traversed the security fence and engaged the Arab attackers on the Palestinian Arab side. One, it turns out, was armed with an automatic rifle; the second had a knife, according to army sources. Once they were dead, sources from the Palestinian Arab side identified them as two boys aged 15. Both are from Arake. Ma'an names them as Nihad Raed Muhammad Waqed and Fuad Marwan Khalid Waqed.

During the early afternoon, an Arab assailant armed with a knife hurled himself at Border Police officers manning the Mizmoriya checkpoint between the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Har Homa and Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. According to Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, the attack occurred at about 1:30 pm: "The terrorist ran toward police at the checkpoint with a knife, and when he did not stop Border Police opened fire and killed him...” Fortunately, none of the officers was wounded in the attack." The Jerusalem Post names the dead attacker as 17 year old Naim Safi, of Bethlehem.

Later Sunday afternoon, at about 3:00 pm, Israel Police received an emergency phone call from a woman reporting that an Arab male had attempted to attack her with a knife in Talpiot, one of Jerusalem's southern neighborhoods. Police units immediately set up road blocks and searched for the suspect, but no arrests were made. The search was still going on as we write (Sunday 7:00 pm).

The Hebron attacker, a girl, was rushed
to hospital [Image Source]

Then during the early Sunday evening hours, yet another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack in the Hebron area. The Jerusalem Post report describes this as the work of a "female terrorist", and says she was shot and subdued by security forces. Quoting the Border Police, the same source says the attacker was rushed to hospital by military medical personnel and was reported to be in critical condition. According to Times of Israel, it appears the knife attack was the work of a 14 year old Palestinian Arab girl. It quotes police saying she arrived at a checkpoint near the violence-prone ancient Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, took out a knife and attempted to stab a Border Police officer. He pushed her away and shot her, according to the police. Ynet, quoting Palestinian media sources, says the attacker is 14-year-old Jasmine Rashad al-Zaru, and that she is being treated in the Shaarei Zedek Medical Center hospital in Jerusalem.

While some commentators and political figures still seem to want to hear the Palestinian Arab leadership condemn the terror emanating from their ranks, the larger and more significant issue by far is the recruitment of Palestinian Arab citizens' children to the frontlines of their fruitless and massively self-destructive war of terror against Jews and Israelis.

This has implications that will continue to plague lives on both sides of the border long after the manipulative kleptocrats and child-abusers of the Mahmoud Abbas regime have passed on and gone to their rewards.