04-Mar-19: Pre-dawn vehicle ramming attack on Israelis north of Ramallah

There has been yet another vehicle-ramming attack on Israelis this morning (Monday). According to a breaking Times of Israel report [here], a vehicle in which three persons were traveling was the weapon by which an attack was launched on Israeli security personnel before dawn today near an Arab village it names as N'ima.

Two injured Israelis were evacuated from the scene by helicopter and ambulance for emergency medical care at, we believe, Tel Hashomer Medical Center. One is said to be an IDF soldier whom it describes as being seriously inured. A member of the Border Guard (Mishmar Hagvul in Hebrew) is said to be lightly hurt.

Two of the attack-vehicle's three occupants are said to have been killing and a third wounded. The report quotes an IDF statement “from an initial investigation it appears to be a (terror) attack.”

A Hebrew-language social media report says the overnight attack at about 3:30 this morning in the Binyamin region was at Talmon/Dolev Junction which is about half way between the Israeli community of Dolev and an Arab village (of some 3,500 people) called Kafr Ni'ma (ניעמה) located about 13 km north-west of Ramallah. The less-injured service member is reported by first responders to be about 19. The more seriously-injured soldier is said, in an IDF statement [here], to be an officer. Haaretz says he's in his early twenties and in critical condition after being run-over. No names yet.

A Ynet report adds:

"The troops had stopped their vehicle at the roadside at night—Israeli media reported it had broken down—and were deliberately struck, the military said."

From the Palestinian Arab side, an Arabic language tweet at about 9:00 am Monday from the SAFA Palestinian Press Agency [here] quotes the PA's Ministry of Health about what it calls

"the martyrdom of two citizens and the wounding of a third after the occupation shot them near the village of Kafr Nehmeh west of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, and no information until the moment about the identity of the martyrs and the injured."

("Occupied" Ramallah is where the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority has its capital. Fatah and Hamas are deadly rivals. SAFA, based in the Gaza Strip, used to operate a Facebook page but this was shut down by Facebook about a year ago.)

09-Dec-18: A shooter in a passing vehicle seriously injures several Israelis tonight near Ofra, north of Jerusalem

The facts are still somewhat unclear though enraging and upsetting. Here is what we understand.

People (not yet identified - apparently two individuals) inside a moving white sedan directed gunfire at a small group of Israeli standing at the roadside near Ofra, a community of about 4,000 Israelis located in the Binyamin region about 20 km north of the Israeli capital Jerusalem. The attack occurred around 9:00 pm Sunday night.

Times of Israel says seven people are shot (we have seen other credible reports that there are 9 - we will wait for the fog to clear). At least one, a pregnant woman, is said to be in critical condition.

Of the other injured people, two are reported to be moderately wounded and four are somewhat less seriously hurt. Israel National News says two of them are 16 year old girls. Aljazeera's mind-reading field reporters already "know" that the shooting victims are "settlers". (Obviously they have absolutely no idea at this stage but it's a well-established practice designed to demean and dehumanize the innocent victims of Arab shooting frenzies down through the ages.)

After first responder care at the scene by Magen David Adom ambulance crews, all are now in hospitals - Shaarei Zedek Medical Center and Hadassah Mt Scopus - receiving emergency treatment.

Security camera video of the shooting, posted to multiple social media sites in the past half hour, shows the white car slowing down near what appears to be a bus-stop or hitch-hiking post. Bullets are seen striking the victims who rush to escape the point-blank fire. The car stops for a few moments, then leaves the scene at high speed. Heroes.

A major manhunt is now underway.

UPDATE Monday December 10, 2018 at 6:00 am: Via Israel National News, the pregnant shooting victim is a young woman of 21, with the Hebrew name (for prayer purposes) Shira Yael bat Liora. Her baby was delivered, premature, by caesarean section and then placed in the NICU for emergency care. The mother is "suffering from gunshot wounds in the pelvic area and abdomen. The woman arrived in critical condition, she lost a lot of blood, received blood transfusions, was stabilized and was taken to the operating room for urgent emergency surgery."

UPDATE Wednesday December 12, 2018 at 7:00 pm: Sadly, "Baby dies after emergency delivery following Ofra terror attack"

“With great sorrow we announce the death of Shira and Amichai’s newborn four days after the attack despite the efforts of doctors at the neonatal intensive care unit to save him,” a spokesperson for Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem said, referring to the baby’s parents. A funeral for the baby will be held at 9:45 p.m. (tonight - Wednesday) at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem.

25-Jan-17: Vehicle ramming assault tonight on Jerusalem's northern edge (and the backstory)

A photo taken at the scene (credit: Elazar Yisraeli) [Image Source] 

A brief Times of Israel bulletin posted to its website a little after 7:00 pm (Israel time) this evening says:

The IDF is investigating reports of an alleged car-ramming attack in the central West Bank. According to initial reports, the incident occurred at a crossing near Ma’ale Michmash, north of Jerusalem. The driver of the vehicle is said to have been shot. No Israelis have been reported injured.

Over on the Rotter (Hebrew-language) forum, there are several user-contributed posts which indicate what happened. In our words:

• A pick-up truck with Palestinian Authority license plates drove into a bus stop located next to the gas station near the Israeli community of Maale Michmas (population: about 1,400) just before 7 this evening. 
• The community is part of the Mateh Binyamin region, located on Jerusalem's northern edge. 
• Eyewitness say the Arab driver tried to crush people standing at the bus stop, of which there appear to have been many. But his vehicle was effectively blocked by the presence of protective metal security posts embedded in concrete at the bus stop. 
• No Israelis were hurt, as far as we can tell. Gunfire ensued as armed passers-by sought to stop the attacker. 
• He was shot and according to unconfirmed reports is alive but injured.

(But note that what happened has a disturbing backstory which we added at the foot of this post.)

Rule of thumb: When Arab-on-Israeli
acts of terror are thwarted, they are almost invariably
labelled "alleged". But never in Arabic.

UPDATE 7:50 pm Wednesday January 25, 2017: Times of Israel says the attacker is dead and that he had more than a simple vehicle-borne assault on people's bodies on his mind:

The Israeli civilians who were standing at the bus stop were uninjured. According to the military, the driver swerved from his lane and crashed his truck into the metal bollards surrounding a bus stop near the Ma’ale Michmash settlement in the central West Bank. Israeli troops who were stationed nearby opened fire, killing the Palestinian man. When the soldiers checked the vehicle, they found that the driver had a knife in his hand, the army says. The identity of the Palestinian driver has yet to be revealed.

On the website of the Palestinian Arab news site Ma'an, the latest flash bulletin reads: "Palestinian killed near settlement after alleged vehicular attack". Evidently they mean tonight's thwarted murder-by-vehicle "alleged" assault.

Arab reports, quoting the Palestinian Authority health ministry identify the thwarted attacker as Hussein Salem Abu Ghosh, 24, from Qalandiya. One such report says

Hussein is the cousin of Hussein Mohammad Abu Ghosh, 17, who was killed a year ago on January 26, 2016, after he and Ibrahim Osama Allan, 23, stabbed a settler, identified as Shlomit Krigman, 24, who later died from her wounds at the Hadassah Israeli medical center, in Jerusalem. Another Israeli woman was seriously injured in the same incident... ["Israeli Army Kills A Young Palestinian Man Near Ramallah", IMEMC News, January 26, 2017]

We wrote about the tragic murder of Shlomit Krigman ["26-Jan-16: Two attackers stab women at neighborhood grocery store; instantly become figures of emulation"] a year ago. Seems the hideous process of Arab-on-Israeli terror-emulation has not yet completed running its course.

Why are we not surprised? (Answer: Because it's precisely what the ongoing daily incitement to fresh acts of terror, murder, violence and hatred on the part of the Palestinian Authority and the Abbas clique that rule it is calculated to achieve.)

10-Dec-15: Thursday afternoon vehicle-ramming attack; 4 Israelis hurt

There has been another vehicle-ramming attack on Israelis with serious injuries to the victims:

An initial report indicated that the vehicle had approached a group of soldiers from the Kedem battalion who were busy conducting routine security operations along the route, before ramming the soldiers and their vehicle, wounding all four. According to police, a black Isuzu vehicle rammed into the four between the Palestinian village of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya and the Israeli settlement of Beit Aryeh-Ofarim. The car was later found abandoned in the village of Rantis... Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the wounded to Beilinson Hospital at the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva. Three of the soldiers were lightly-to-moderately hurt... Security forces were searching for the driver, who was able to flee the scene. Checkpoints and roadblocks were set up all over the area.
[Ynet, December 10, 2015]

(Rantis has about 3,000 residents. It's a village that sits almost on top of the Green Line. Nearby Beit Aryeh-Ofarim, also straddling the Green Line, is a community of about 4,500 Israelis, in the history-rich Binyamin region of Samaria, and only about 25 kilometers from Tel Aviv.)

The moment of impact, around 3:30 this afternoon, was caught by a security camera:

According to Haaretz, one of the four Israelis struck in the attack is injured critically. All four are IDF soldiers in their twenties. It says that, when the attack vehicle was located by security forces, an M-16 rifle of the kind used by IDF soldiers was found abandoned inside along with a stun grenade. The search is ongoing as we write this.

UPDATE Friday December 11, 2015: He was caught early this morning, and naturally he has his reasons.

26-Jun-15: Spring of hope and revenge

The spring at Ein Bubin - today [Image Source]

It's a delightful Friday - blue sky, bright sunshine, temperature in the mid-twenties (Celsius, of course), a light breeze.

The photograph above was snapped today and features prominently on the Israel National News site. It was snapped at the natural springs pool in the Binyamin district just north of Jerusalem where Danny Gonen spent last Friday, and close to where he and his companion, driving away from what must have been a lovely interlude, were flagged down by an Arab. He appeared to need help and had something he wanted to ask them.

But he didn't in fact need help, and shot Danny Gonen at point blank range, murdering him. The companion, Netanel Hadad, was injured.

Whether informally or by arrangement (we don't know), a revenge scenario was hatched by people living in the vicinity. Evidence of their act of vengeance can be seen above - converging as families on the pool and demonstratively enjoying themselves at this very moment, Friday afternoon.

The first signs of the extremist scheme were articulated at the funeral a few days ago when the mayor of Lod, a city on the south side of Tel Aviv and adjoining Ben Gurion airport, and home to the two victims, swore beside the open grave that scholarship awards would be created in the murdered man's name:

"Instead of dealing with unnecessary culture wars, we should be united against our enemies who rise up to destroy us, some of them have only one culture - that of murder and violence." ...Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel said, "Vengeance belongs to God Almighty. We say to you, the Gonen family, Lod, the nation of Israel: We will continue to build Lod, Dolev and Ma'aleh Adumim, where Danny studied. We will build our country spiritually and materially. The Ein Bubin spring will from now be named after Danny. We shall visit there, we shall plant and take root there and in all of the Land of Israel." [Ynet, June 21, 2015]

A fiendish plot: more scholarships, more education, more progress, more achievement, more swimming.

How are the vast numbers of Palestinian Arabs who align themselves with the strategy of shooting to kill Israelis when it's possible to do so [see "56% support return to an armed intifada", Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No. 54, December 2014], going to cope with that?

Actually, we fear that we do actually know.