20-Apr-19: At Tapuah Junction, a stabbing attacker is thwarted

Here in Israel, we have just completed the first day of the week-long Pesach festival. It was also the Sabbath. But Arab-on-Israeli terrorism doesn't take holidays.

Haaretz reported this morning on a thwarted attack:

Israeli security forces shot and wounded a Palestinian man on Saturday attempting to carry out a stabbing attack in the West Bank, Border Police said, reporting no further wounded in the incident.
A 20-year-old resident of Saniriya, a village in the northern West Bank, approached a Border Police outpost at the Tapuah Junction and "behaved suspiciously," according to the Israel Police spokesperson.
According to the statement, policemen began pursuing the suspect on foot. Another policeman driving nearby spotted the chase and blocked the suspect with his car.
The suspect then pulled out a knife and tried opening the car door in an attempt to stab the policeman inside, who then shot and wounded him, said the statement.
It was initially reported the suspect had died at the scene. However, he was evacuated in critical condition by the Israeli army for medical attention.

Saniriya is an Arab village of roughly 3,000 people located in Samaria. Times of Israel says the attacker was taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva for emergency treatment. Beilinson is a major Israeli medical facility, part of the world-renowned Rabin Medical Center.

The European-funded Maan News Agency reporting from Bethlehem doesn't actually dispute any of what Haaretz reports. Instead it adopts its traditional disingenuous tone (in the English-language version - there's no Arabic report at this hour) according to which Israeli forces injured "a Palestinian who was passing by the checkpoint... claiming that he attempted to carry out a stabbing attack against Israeli soldiers deployed at the Zaatara checkpoint south of the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus".

So: just another innocent Palestinian Arab passer-by mugged by Israeli reality. Here's a photo of the knife he was clutching.

The checkpoint that Ma'an's editors call Zaatara is better known as Tapuah Junction, site of many previous Arab-on-Israeli attacks (click to view some of our previous Tapuah posts).

And Nablus, which Ma'an calls "Israeli-occupied", is in reality controlled by the Abbas/Fatah Palestinian Authority, having been "handed over to the Palestinian National Authority on December 12, 1995, as a result of the Oslo Accords Interim Agreement" [Wikipedia].

A poster on social media [Twitter] calls the "passer-by" Omar Awni Younes (the Younes clan are a large part of the Saniriya population) and quotes a post uploaded by him this morning: "this is a jihad, victory or martyrdom".

11-Oct-18: In Israel's Samaria district, an Arab-on-Israeli stabbing this afternoon

There's been another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack today.

Two Israelis are injured, one in serious condition, after an attacker, evidently a Palestinian Arab, standing at an Israeli bus stop near the IDF's Shomron Regional Brigade headquarters close to the community of Itamar, pulled a "huge knife" (according to an Israel National News report) at about 1:30 pm. He stabbed an Israeli reservist of about 30 and then fled from the scene. He has not yet been apprehended.

(We wrote about another stabbing attack at what sounds like the same spot in January 2016 - see this post.)

Times of Israel says IDF soldiers at the scene opened fire in the attacker's direction:

Shrapnel from the shots struck the woman in the leg. The stabber may have fled in a waiting car nearby, Hadashot TV news said.

The woman caught in the cross-fire is reportedly 26 and her leg injuries are not life-threatening. Both victims were taken to Rabin Medical Center/Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva for emergency care. (It's the largest ER facility in Israel.)

Many Arab-on-Israeli stabbings over the past two years have involved the knifers aiming for the upper parts of their victims' bodies, and so it was this afternoon. The male victim suffered stab wounds to the face and the upper torso. He was conscious when brought to hospital.

Consistent with the shabby, unprofessional way it reports on Arab-on-Israeli terror, the European-funded Ma'an News Agency 'knows' ["Israeli soldier, settler injured in stabbing attack, suspect flees", today] that the woman victim is a "settler". In fact, her identity and certainly her home address, remain unpublicized. Calling her a settler is a knowing act of incitement to terror; for the practitioners of Maan-style lethal journalism, all Israelis are "settlers".

One report ["Israeli Army Reservist Wounded in West Bank Stabbing Attack", Haaretz, today] says the knifer fled toward Huwara, a Palestinian village near Nablus. It says the IDF has set up dozens of roadblocks around the town and soldiers were carrying out checks, causing "large traffic jams" in the area.

The alleged stabber is taken into custody on Thursday
night [Image Source]

UPDATE 12:05 am Friday October 12, 2018: Times of Israel says the attacker has been apprehended. He is un-named at this stage but reported to be a 19-year-old male from the Muslim village of Jamma’in (population about 7,000), about 16 km south of Nablus in Samaria. He is currently helping the Israeli security authorities with their enquiries. Hamas, according to Wikipedia, is the dominant political force in the town. A Hamas announcement [here in Arabic] says Thursday's stabbing attack at a bus stop is "a slap to the occupation and failure of its security system... the operation comes in the context of our people's response to the arrogance of the occupation and its continuous violations against our people and our holy sites".

UPDATE 12:30 pm Friday October 12, 2018: A Palestinian Arab source names the arrested suspect as Muaz Qassem Hussein, age 19. They publish his photo here.

UPDATE 11:15 pm Monday October 15, 2018: From Ynet:

The IDF released footage from the security cameras showing the stabbing terror attack at the bus stop outside the Samaria Territorial Brigade base in the West Bank, which last Thursday left an IDF reservist moderately wounded and a civilian woman slightly hurt. In a video released Monday, the reservist, who is reported to be in his thirties, is seen standing on the side of the road next to a civilian, when the terrorist suddenly emerges from behind and proceeds to chase after the soldier with a knife. After a struggle between the two, which lasts several seconds, the civilian at the bust stop is seen escaping the area and two other soldiers arrive at the scene and aim their weapons at the fleeing terrorist.

The video is here.

05-Feb-18: [UPDATED] The victim of today's Arab-on-Israeli stabbing barbarism, a teacher and a father of four young children, has died of his injuries

Tragedy in Ariel: The Ben Gal family, destroyed by today's
murderous terrorist attack [Image Source: Ynet]

Israeli society is having to confront another extreme-bigotry-driven murder today and the tragic burden which has landed on a young family ill-equipped to deal with its weight.

Today, Monday afternoon, just outside the entrance to the Israeli city of Ariel, at about 2:30 pm, an Israeli man, standing on the sidewalk at a bus stop that also serves as a hitch-hike point, became the victim of an unprovoked stabbing attack. 

The knifer, a Palestinian Arab whom the security camera captures crossing the road and approaching his unsuspecting target from behind, fled the scene after plunging the knife into the victim's chest several times. He the object of an ongoing manhunt as we write this.

We know now that the man who came under attack is Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal, 29, a father of four young children who settled with his wife and family in the Israeli community of Har Bracha, a short distance from where the attack took place. He was given emergency care at the scene by a Magen David Adom ambulance team and army medics. Times of Israel reported that he was taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah but died of his wounds. He will be buried in Har Bracha tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

Israel National News says Rav Ben Gal was an educator who worked with 8th graders at the Bnei Akiva Yeshiva in Givat Shmuel, a Tel Aviv suburban community, and taught as well in the Har Bracha Yeshiva.

Ynet says this about the suspected murderer now being tracked down:

The terrorist, investigators found, is 19-year old Israeli-Arab resident of Jaffa Abed al-Karim Adel Assi, a son of an Israeli mother and Palestinian father from Nablus... Despite being hit [by an Israeli motorist] al-Karim was able to escape with the help of an unidentified driver who picked him up near the scene of the incident. IDF forces are currently spreading out in the region in an effort to locate him. The terrorist's backpack was found on the scene containing a change of clothes and his Israeli ID card. The bag also contained a comb, hair gel, a lighter and a charger... Large concentrations of IDF forces entered the village of Kifl Haris, according to Palestinian reports, in their search of the terrorist.

Kifl Haris is a Palestinian Arab village which, according to some Jewish traditions, is the site of the graves of the Biblical figures Joshua, Caleb and Joshua's father Nun.

According to Ynet, the Islamist terrorists of Hamas issued a message from Gaza welcoming today's murder and asserting that it "is proof that the Al-Quds intifada continues".

UPDATE Tuesday February 6, 2018 at 2:00 pm:
According to a Times of Israel report today, the terrorist attacker who stabbed to death Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal yesterday has been advised to

Today's funeral for Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal [Image Source]

turn himself in to security forces, his mother tells Israel’s Channel 10 television news. Abed al-Karim Assi, 19, is suspected of stabbing to death Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal, 29, at the Ariel Junction in the northern West Bank. Assi holds Israeli citizenship and lives in Jaffa, defense officials said late Monday. He managed to evade capture following the attack, even after an IDF officer hit him with his car while in pursuit. Assi’s father lives in Nablus and his mother in Haifa. She tells Channel 10 she “hasn’t seen my son in a long time.” She says his actions “are unacceptable.” “What he did just ruined his life. He has no right to take a life,” she says.

Listening to his mother is good advice though probably hard for the stabber. Listening to Miriam, the mother of Itamar Ben-Gal's orphaned children, might be good advice too but in the current circumstances a lot harder for both sides.

UPDATE Wednesday February 7, 2018 at 9:30 am: There's a disturbing update report from Times of Israel -

The suspected terrorist behind the killing of a rabbi Monday was detained by soldiers in a confrontation at the scene a day before the attack and then released, the Ynet news site reported Tuesday night. According to the report 19-year-old Arab Israeli Abed al-Karim Assi arrived at the junction outside the settlement of Ariel on Sunday — a day before he is believed to have fatally stabbed 29-year-old Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal at the same spot — and swore at soldiers stationed there. The soldiers are said to have detained him and examined his identification, then allowed him to go on his way... The military said a preliminary investigation showed soldiers had acted appropriately in accordance with the suspect’s behavior. Israeli security forces were still searching for Assi on Tuesday night. In the evening clashes broke out in Nablus as troops searched the West Bank city... ["Ariel killer was briefly detained by soldiers a day before attack", today]

The pursuit of Abed al-Karim Assi who video cameras "allege" stabbed to death Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal Z"L at the entrance to Ariel on Monday goes on. A report from i24news this morning says a Palestinian Arab was shot dead and five others, perhaps more, are critically injured as the IDF continues to search for the stabber in Nablus/Shechem. Reporter Khaled Abu Toameh says (via Twitter) says the injuries tally stands at 47.

UPDATE Sunday March 18, 2018 at 9:30 am Times of Israel reports

Israeli forces on Sunday arrested a suspected terrorist who is believed to have stabbed to death Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal near Ariel in February, following an extensive manhunt, the Shin Bet security service said. On February 5, 19-year-old Abed al-Karim Assi, an Israeli citizen, is believed to have attacked Ben-Gal, 29, at a bus stop outside Ariel, a West Bank settlement. Assi fled the scene, leading security forces on a month-long manhunt that ended with his arrest in the predawn hours of Sunday in the West Bank city of Nablus, the Shin Bet said. The security service said he was found inside a house in the city. According to the Israel Defense Forces, Assi was injured during the early morning arrest raid and received treatment from army medics. The military would not elaborate on how he sustained his wounds... In addition to Assi, a number of people who were with him at the time of his arrest were also taken into custody, the service said...  Assi had been thought to have been hiding out in Nablus, where his father lives, since the attack. Before the attack he had used his Israeli citizenship to spend time on both sides of the Green Line, including with his mother, who lives in Haifa. He had received social service assistance from Israeli authorities, including at the Shanti Home in Tel Aviv for at-risk youth...

There's a video clip here of his being taken into Israeli custody:

He's alive and evidently in good shape. His victim's family - the young widow and her children - could be forgiven for wondering where the justice is in that.

24-Jul-17: Stabbing for Al-Aqsa again

The kosher shawarma stand where today's stabbing "for
Al Aqsa" happened [Image Source]

There has been an Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack today (Monday) in Petach Tikvah.

According to Ynet, the Arab attacker stabbed his victim, an Israeli Arab of 32 who is a driver for Egged, the national bus co-operative, at a spot close to a shawarma (grilled lamb meat) stand near the busy Petach Tikva Central Bus Station, injuring him moderately-to-severely.

According to Times of Israel

The assailant then tried to escape on foot, but was wrestled to the ground by civilian bystanders and handed over to police. Some reports said a driver who was passing by helped stop the attacker by ramming him with his car as he tried to escape. Others said a local pizzeria worker helped subdue him by hitting him with a wooden pizza tray. The assailant, a 21-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank town of Qalqilya, was arrested and taken for questioning by police. Police spokesman Luba Samri said Monday’s attack was nationalist in nature. She said the attacker was a Palestinian working illegally in Israel.

Ynet says the victim was rushed to Beilinson Hospital in nearby Rabin Medical Center with injuries to upper body including stabbing injuries to the neck. This, it has to be noted, is where Palestinian Arab stabbers are taught to aim when carrying out Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks.

In Ynet's telling, the stabber told police he "did it for Al-Aqsa." He has a criminal/terror record, having been imprisoned in 2015 – 2016 for "a nationalistically motivated attack" on Israelis.

We're witnessing a great deal of evil being done "for Al-Aqsa" at the moment.

26-Apr-17: Another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing today; same site as yesterday and assailant is related to yesterday's knifer

The lives of today's knifer, and his cousin from yesterday's knifing, are in
the hands of emergency surgeons at Rabin Medical Center today [Image Source]

If you saw our report yesterday about a stabbing attack on Israelis at Hawara Checkpoint in the Samaria District, you'll know that the assailant failed in his mission and ended the day yesterday in Beilinson Hospital being treated for serious bullet wounds. His name is Amjad Maher Jaafar (Haaretz gives his surname not as Jaafar but as Salah), his home is in Balata, a bustling neighbourhood (though often called a refugee camp) of the Palestinian Arab city of Nablus, and he is 17.

At about 1:30 pm this afternoon (Wednesday), there was another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack at more or less the same spot as yesterday's attack. 

Times of Israel says no Israelis are reported injured and that, according to an IDF spokesperson, the soldiers who came under attack responded with gunfire. The result is similar to what happened yesterday: the assailant took bullets in the stomach, was taken to Rabin Medical Center's Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva for emergency treatment (like yesterday's stabber), and is said to be in “serious condition, unconscious and on a ventilator”.

Here's what Ma'an News Agency, a Palestinian Arab mouthpiece, says about today's knife-man:

Locals identified the wounded Palestinian as 16-year-old Saleh Omar Saleh from Balata refugee camp in southern Nablus. According to locals, Saleh is the cousin of 17-year-old Amjad Maher Jaafar, who was shot multiple times in the stomach at the same location less than 24 hours earlier, after he too allegedly attempted to carry out a stabbing attack on Israeli soldiers.

(In Arab society, the word "cousin" can have a broader meaning than we are accustomed to, and may refer to members of the same clan. And though we have no way of knowing at this point, reports in the Hebrew social media describes today's attacker being aged 20.)

Today's attempted stabbing extends a daily sequence that so far includes:

• 25-Apr-17: A thwarted Arab-on-Israeli stabbing near Hawara Junction
• 24-Apr-17: At Qalandiya Crossing, a woman stabber attacked an Israeli official this morning
• 23-Apr-17: Tel Aviv tourist precinct: Arab assailant stabs four

and in the previous week 

• 14-Apr-17: The urge to stab erupts again: In Jerusalem, a young woman is knifed on a tram

Developing

25-Apr-17: A thwarted Arab-on-Israeli stabbing near Hawara Junction

At the scene shortly after the thwarted attack

There has been another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing today (Tuesday) around 3:00 pm, this time just outside the IDF's Military Intelligence base near the Hawara Checkpoint in the Samaria District.

A Ynet report says the attacker coming from the direction of Nablus brandished a knife as he charged at a group of soldiers from the Golani 51st Battalion standing in a square - Kikar Hahativa (כיכר החטיבה) or Brigade Square. The soldiers opened fire at the man before he managed to reach them. He was rendered unable to continue his attempt to cause serious harm and is injured - though his condition is not reported at this time. He received emergency treatment at the scene from IDF medics and was then evacuated to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva for further treatment.

Israel National News says no Israelis are reported injured in the attack. The Palestinian Arab assailant has not yet been named.

Over at the Palestinian Arab news service Ma'an, they report rather laconically - as if there were no rich history oof daily stabbing attacks on Israeli civilians and military - that

A Palestinian was shot multiple times in the stomach by Israeli forces after he allegedly attempted to commit a knife attack on Israeli soldiers in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, with no Israelis being harmed in the incident. Israeli media sites reported that the Palestinian was in a critical condition.

There's a Palestinian Arab video clip [here], evidently taken from within a passing car, of the scene shortly after the attacker was stopped.

Hawara is where Hussam Abdo, the cognitively-challenged human bomb we mentioned in a recent post [here] was stopped by alert IDF service personnel in March 2004.

08-Mar-16: In Petach Tikva late this afternoon, the Arab stabber is killed; his Israeli victim is hospitalized

It's a delightful spring Tuesday here in Jerusalem. But there is Arab-on-Israeli violence in the air yet again.

Late this afternoon on Baron Hirsch Street in Petach Tikvah, an Arab terrorist male launched a knifing attack on a Jewish male, evidently a Haredi man aged around 35-40. According to an Israel National News report, the Jewish man fought back, wrestled the knife from the attacker's hand and stabbed him to death. The stabbing victim was rushed to nearby Beilinson Medical Center in moderate condition with multiple stabbing wounds to the upper body.

The attacker is reported to be an Arab in his 20s, Times of Israel says he "is apparently a Palestinian from the West Bank". But at this stage, details are in short supply.

07-Oct-15: Despatches from the fronts

Shuafat, North Jerusalem, Monday October 5: Border Guard
officers taking care of business [Image Source]

It's early Wednesday evening in Jerusalem and the extreme violence is continuing.

• This morning, an Israeli man in his mid-thirties was attacked by a knife-wielding Palestinian Arab female aged about 18-20. This attack, like the murderous assault on a small group of Israeli pedestrians this past Saturday night ["03-Oct-15: Arab violence escalates in Jerusalem: Multiple stabbings in Old City tonight"] was carried out adjacent to Lion's Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. Today's victim suffered stab wounds in his upper body and back - he was stabbed from behind. The attacker's name is given [here] as Shorouq Dwayyat. Like her victim, she is being treated at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital where she is said to be in critical condition after her victim managed to get off some accurate shots in her direction. The attacker's family are in the news as well, as Times of Israel reports: "The family of the terrorist said that officers stationed outside her hospital room would not allow them to visit the woman, Channel 2 reported. One of the family members was detained by police for questioning. Dwayyat’s mother told the TV station in a later interview that her daughter stabbed the man in self-defense after he attempted to pull off her head covering. It later transpired, however, that Dwayyat had written a Facebook post saying she was “going to become a shahid” - a “martyr.” Lovely people.
• Seven vehicles (at least) were damaged by rocks hurled by Palestinian Arabs this morning on the Jerusalem to Tekoa road near the volatile Arab neighbourhood Beit Sahour. One vehicle, driven by a young Israeli woman, Rivi Ohayon, a resident of Tekoa, came to a stop because of the hail of rocks and was quickly surrounded by a mob that forced the door of the car open. The driver was kicked multiple times and the car’s front windshield was smashed. She was treated by Magen David Adom paramedics and then sent to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem with light injuries. Times of Israel quotes Josh Hasten, a journalist for the Jerusalem Post, and a resident of Elazar, a nearby community, who said that earlier this morning he had been attacked on the road: “As I slowed down, I saw a mob of 40 to 50 masked Palestinians on the side of the road. They were holding rocks and cinder blocks... As they approached my car, I took out my gun and fired one round in the air. The shot obviously scared them and they ran up the hill away from the road... I have no doubt that I would be dead now if I hadn’t used my gun. They were going to kill me.” There's an audio interview with Josh Hasten here.
• A Palestinian Arab male stabbed and then stole the weapon of an Israeli soldier in the coastal city of Kiryat Gat. Security personnel pursued the assailant to a nearby building - evidently in order to take up a position inside an accessible apartment, which he sought to enter [video] - where they succeeded in mortally shooting him.
• Around 6:30 this evening, a similar attack happened in the central city of Petach Tikva where a Palestinian Arab stabbed several people in a shopping mall. There are multiple casualties and few details. One of the victims, an Israeli male of about 25, is reported to be in moderate condition and stable with knife wounds, and being treated at nearby Beilinson Hospital. The attacker was arrested and in the hands of the police.
• Again, few details at this stage, but it's reported that a 15-year-old Palestinian Arab youth was arrested in Abu Tor, a mixed Jewish/Arab section of Jerusalem, after attempting a knife assault on Israel Police forces around 7:00 pm this evening.
• Times of Israel reports that two people were injured lightly when a Palestinian Arab driver rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint on Jerusalem's eastern side around 8:30 pm Wednesday night. The vehicle's driver was shot by a Border Guard officer and injured at the A-Zaim checkpoint, between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem, According to police, the vehicle driven by a Palestinian Arab was coming from east of Maale Adumim when the driver rammed it into the checkpoint.

In addition, dozens of rock-hurling attacks and firebombings (Molotov cocktail attacks). It's now almost midnight, and the sounds of police sirens are audible from points across the city.

29-Oct-12: File away for use when Haniyeh is next depicted as partner for peace

Man of principle shakes hand of religious ideologue

Ignore the confusing English. The source is a Persian-language news channel translated from the source Arabic and then rendered into English by a team of salaried propagandists.

But there's no mistaking the intent of Ismail Haniyeh, the man who heads the Hamas regime that dominates the Gaza Strip and "one of two disputed Prime Ministers of the Palestinian National Authority". Source: This past Saturday night's edition of the Iranian news channel, FARS [online]

Hamas Leader: Palestinian Stance against Israel Unchangeable   

20:40 | 2012-10-27
TEHRAN (FNA)- Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh underlined his nation's irrevocable stance against Israel, stressing that Palestinians will never ignore even a single span of their land. "We (Palestinians) will never overlook even one span of Palestine's soil because Palestine is an endowed land and no person, leader, organization or group is entitled to the right to ignore this land," Haniyeh said in a meeting on Saturday with the members of 'Miles of Smiles 17' aid convoy and an Indonesian delegation visiting Gaza. "Israel has no future in the Palestinian lands and our motto is that we will never recognize the Zionist regime," he said. 

A man of principle.

In the interests of throwing some modest light on how far the arch-terrorist's principles take him: Many Israelis are aware that earlier this year, the man who instructs the forces under his command to fire off rockets and mortars into anything Israeli and within reach, made arrangements for his brother-in-law to be saved by Zionist doctors at an "Occupation" medical facility in one of the Zionist Entity's major cities.

In early 2012, Haniyeh allowed his sister, Suhila Abd el-Salam Ahmed Haniyeh, to accompany her critically ill husband to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel, for emergency heart treatment. After successful treatment and care, the couple returned to Gaza without incident. Word of the unusual visit was released only four months later. It remains to be seen how this special treatment for the leader's relatives will be regarded by Gazans. [Wikipedia]