07-Feb-18: In Gush Etzion's Karmei Tzur, another Arab-on-Israeli knifing Wednesday morning

The secured entrance to Karmei Tzur this morning [Image Source]

At the secured entrance to the Israeli community of Karmei Tzur (an hour's drive south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem via the Tunnels Road) in Gush Etzion, a Palestinian Arab equipped with an attack knife stabbed one of the security people inside the booth at around 6:30 this morning (Wednesday). Times of Israel says a second security person shot the assailant and killed him.

The Israeli who suffered knifing injuries, said to be a male of about 34, was treated at the scene by Magen David Adom paramedics. He was then rushed to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital, fully conscious, for emergency care.

We're evidently in the midst of one of those periodic upticks in Arab-on-Israeli knifing attacks.

Meanwhile the narrative-spinning of the Palestinian Arab news media continues in its customary manner:

HEBRON, February 7, 2018 (WAFA) – A Palestinian was shot dead by an Israeli security guard on Wednesday following an alleged stabbing attack at an illegal settlement north of Hebron, Palestinian and Israeli reports said. The Israeli army said a Palestinian stabbed a security guard at Karmi Tsur settlement near Halhoul, north of Hebron, before another guard shot him dead. The stabbed guard was taken to hospital where he was reported in light condition. The Palestinian coordinating office identified the alleged attacker as Hamzeh Yousef Zamaareh, 19, from Halhoul. Palestinians said Israeli soldiers raided the Zamaareh home following the incident. WAFA correspondent said residents of the area where the Zamaareh home is located clashed with the soldiers. No injuries were reported. ["Palestinian shot dead following alleged stabbing attack north of Hebron", WAFA, this morning]

Martyr-style portraits of Zamaareh (or Zamareh) are already circulating in the terrorism-friendly parts of the social media. Here's one that suggests he worked in a pizzeria. His family will now become eligible for payments from the terrorism-encouraging PA Martyr's Fund ("Rewards for Terror"). This however will not be mentioned in any mainstream media reports.

Halhoul appears frequently in our blog posts. No prizes for guessing why. The most recent murderous attack emanating from Halhoul that we reported is this one: "17-Nov-17: Ramming/stabbing attack Friday morning at entrance to Efrat"

17-Nov-17: Ramming/stabbing attack Friday morning at entrance to Efrat

Today's attack vehicle: The driver had a knife
and used it too [Image Source]

There has been an Arab-on-Israel attack in Gush Etzion, just south of Jerusalem this bright, sunny, late-Autumn morning (Friday). The first reports appeared on social media around 8:15 am.

From Times of Israel:

A Palestinian terrorist rammed his car into two people, seriously injuring one of them, before getting shot while trying to stab soldiers in the central West Bank on Friday morning, the army said. The driver of the vehicle, who has yet to be named, rammed his car into the first victim, a 70-year-old man, who sustained a light head wound, at the Efrat South junction, medics said. He continued down the road to the nearby Gush Etzion Junction where he hit another Israeli man, 35, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service. The second victim was initially said to have been lightly-to-moderately wounded, but the hospital downgraded [sic] his condition to serious, with a brain injury. The army said the driver then got out of his car with a knife and tried to stab soldiers. “The soldiers responded by firing towards the attacker, resulting in his injury,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. According to the hospital, the terrorist was in critical condition.

Ramming followed by stabbing: it's classic Palestinian Arab textbook jihad. At this stage, the indications - unconfirmed - are that the terrorist is being treated at one of the two Hadassah hospitals in Jerusalem and is alive but in bad condition after being shot.

Israel National News says the older of the two Israeli victims, David Ramati from the nearby community of Kiryat Arba, was run-over by the attacker and his van. He is being treated for his injuries at Shaarei Zedek Medical Center.

The younger victim was struck by the same vehicle but at a different nearby location, and is being treated for serious head injuries at Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Karem hospital.

The same source says (and at this early stage, we will be looking for confirmation) that the terrorist who executed the attack is a seventeen year old Palestinian Arab. This means he is a child in the eyes of the law and will therefore be entitled to the attention and protections of the new Bill proposed to the US Congress by Rep. Betty McCollum

a Democrat representing the families of Minnesota’s Fourth District in the United States House of Representatives. In 2000, Congresswoman McCollum made history as only the second Minnesota woman elected to serve in Congress since statehood in 1858. McCollum represents the residents of Minnesota's capital city, St. Paul, as well as all of Ramsey County and most of Washington County...

From her November 14, 2017 media release:

Congresswoman Betty McCollum (DFL-Minn.) today introduced legislation— the Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act, H.R. 4391 — to prevent United States tax dollars from supporting the Israeli military’s ongoing detention and mistreatment of Palestinian children... “This legislation highlights Israel’s system of military detention of Palestinian children and ensures that no American assistance to Israel supports human rights violations,” Congresswoman McCollum said. “Peace can only be achieved by respecting human rights, especially the rights of children. Congress must not turn a blind eye the unjust and ongoing mistreatment of Palestinian children living under Israeli occupation.”

JMs McCollum's co-sponsors are Representatives Mark Pocan, Earl Blumenauer, André Carson, John Conyers, Jr., Danny K. Davis, Peter A. DeFazio, Raul Grijalva, Luis V. Gutiérrez, and Chellie Pingree.

The legislation has the endorsement of

• American Friends Service Committee
• Amnesty International USA
• Center for Constitutional Rights
• Churches for Middle East Peace - which offered this commentary: "We must ensure we are not supporting the continued trauma inflicted on Palestinian youth entangled in the Israeli Military Detention system...”
• Defense for Children International - Palestine
• Friends Committee on National Legislation
• Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 
• United Church of Christ
• Jewish Voice for Peace
• Mennonite Central Committee
• Presbyterian Church (USA)
• U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights
• United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR)
• United Methodist General Board of Church and Society.

If any of these groups has ever criticized, let alone condemned, the overt weaponization of children systematically carried out on an ongoing basis by Fatah (through its Palestinian Authority extension) and Hamas, we have seen no signs of it.

We sent her a Tweet on Wednesday which has evidently not yet received her staff's attention:

What a shame if Rep McCollum's misguided initiative [see "The NGOs that Wrote McCollum’s Legislation on Children’s Rights"] were to continue on its way without the author explaining how she rationalizes sanctioning Israel's security policies while she and her law turn a blind eye to the Palestinian Authority's open and explicit child-weaponization.

Vicious Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks like this morning's are the direct result of that kind of silly and dangerous moralistic preening. Maybe someone could ask Rep McCollum where she stands on Arab-on-Israel ramming/stabbing attacks like today's. And whether she sees her Bill stopping them or encouraging even more. And whether any of that matters to her.

UPDATE November 17, 2017 at 11:30 am: The attacker, according to the Arabic edition of Ma'an News Agency's website, is Izz al-Din Ali Abu Rmeishan Karaja. He's from Halhoul, a town close to Efrat which has produced a significant number of terrorist attackers in the past few years (click Halhoul for our posts on previous attackers from there).  And he is 17, so the law sees him as a child. They have a photograph of him (which we will not show) here. It's very likely being circulated right now as he becomes a celebrated hero. Depending on how the recovery process goes, he's headed to becoming either (a) a lifetime recipient of a massive Palestinian Authority financial windfall - what we call the Mahmoud Abbas Rewards for Terror scheme; or (b) a martyr whose life will be honored and celebrated in their circles.

UPDATE November 18, 2017 at 7:30 pm: The younger of the two Israeli victims is Even Ezer (Ebenezer) Holaring, 35, is still in very serious condition at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital according to Israel National News tonight. They say he's a member of Kiryat Arba's Bnei Menashe community of Jews whose origins are traced to India. His family, including six children under the age of 13, is going to need lots of support of a social, spiritual and emphatically material nature - see the details at the special Gush Etzion Foundation website page that has been set up to gather support for them here.

18-Oct-17: The luckiest Arab in the entire Gush

This photo of the scene accompanies the Ma'an Arabic report quoted here

Ynet reports this afternoon (Wednesday)

IDF force stops attempted terrorist attack | Palestinian armed with knife runs towards IDF force near Gush Etzion; force incapacitates him by shooting at his legs, arrests him.
Elisha Ben Kimon Published:  18.10.17 , 13:46
An IDF force carried out a suspect arrest protocol at a knife-wielding would-be Palestinian terrorist near the Gush Etzion junction Wednesday. A soldier from the Nahal's 50 Battalion was stationed in a pillbox at the junction's security checkpoint. The terrorist was running north, going against traffic. The soldier noticed he was carrying a suspicious object, which later turned out to be a knife, and called out to him, ordering him to stop. When the terrorist kept running, the soldier initiated a suspect arrest protocol, during which he shot the would-be terrorist in the stomach, incapacitating him. The suspect was taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem in moderate condition. There were no Israeli casualties.

Times of Israel says the attacker

ran at them with a knife at the Gush Etzion Junction... The soldiers called for the man to stop. When he didn’t, they opened fire, the army said... According to the hospital, the man is in moderate to serious condition, with a gunshot wound to the stomach. He is approximately 20 years old.

Then there's the version provided by Ma'an, a European-funded Palestinian Arab news source, with its customary spin on the facts:

A Palestinian youth was shot and injured by Israeli forces on Wednesday at the Gush Etzion junction south of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, for allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack. Israeli media reported that the youth disembarked from a bus at the Etzion bus station carrying a knife and was immediately shot by Israeli soldiers in the area... Witnesses told Ma’an that the youth, who remained unidentified, was crossing the street running to catch another bus that was departing when Israeli soldiers opened fire at him... Though Israeli forces have claimed that Palestinians were allegedly attempting to carry out attacks in a majority of instances when Palestinians were killed, rights groups have disputed Israel's version of events in a number of cases, and argued that many alleged attackers could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner.

(There's little doubt in our minds that Ma'an's disingenuous spinning of terror-attack reports encourages more of them. Their Arabic language edition is even more pernicious. We wonder how much their European government funders are aware of the nature of Ma'an's work-product. Or care.)

Readers might be interested to know that the Arabic version of the same Ma'an news organization has the same surreal accounting - innocent fellow, minding his own business, rushing to catch a bus and shot down in cold-blood by "occupation forces" - adding the not-so-inconsequential detail that the Arab was killed. No other report says he was, and it's fairly clear he wasn't.

This would-be killer is someone's son. If we were his parents, we would be busy this moment composing a heart-felt thank you note to the commanding officer of the young, cool-headed Nahal soldier doing guard duty at the Gush Etzion Junction where innumerable Arab-on-Israeli knifing attacks have resulted in deaths on both sides during the past two years. We would be saying thank you for sparing the life of our misguided, brain-washed, irresponsible and undeserving son who will now have the opportunity to either regret or to relive today's events.

That soldier, in the space of the handful of seconds available to him, had the power and the equipment to stop the knife attacker permanently. Instead he stuck to instructions and incapacitated him, leaving the medical professionals to bring the Pal Arab terrorist back to health - and a future.

A future which will now - as of this afternoon - include a guaranteed monthly salary from the terror-fixated Abbas regime and its appalling Rewards for Terror scheme. He's unlikely to ever be able to otherwise earn anything close to what the PA - thanks to unwitting or merely apathetic European and North American taxpayers - is about to start paying him for what he did in the Gush this afternoon.

02-Aug-17: In Gush Etzion, a thwarted Arab-on-Israel knifing attack this afternoon

The would-be stabber in the hands of her Israeli captors [Image Source]

At the Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem in the cluster of communities called Gush Etzion, IDF soldiers - part of the large contingent securing the busy area - arrested a Palestinian Arab female who came at them with a knife, as so many other Arabs have in the past two years of lethal Arab-on-Israel violence.

The army, quoted in Times of Israel, says the woman was spotted striding toward the soldiers who, aware of her approach, instructed her to stop while raising their weapons in her direction, as protocol requires. She complied with the request, and then “threw away a knife that she had in her possession”. She is now under arrest and helping the Shin Bet with their enquiries.

A photo [above] showing the would-be knifer in the presence of Israeli security personnel, and published by the Fatah-controlled Ma'an News Agency, gives the impression she is very young.

19-Apr-17: At Gush Etzion, yet another Arab-on-Israel vehicle ramming attack; the assailant is dead

The vehicle-ramming attacker's knife [Image Source]

(If you came here via our tweet, we found something depressing, but also informative, in an Arabic news report at the bottom.)

An Israeli male suffered mild injuries today in another Arab-on-Israeli vehicle ramming terror attack close to the Gush Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem today (Wednesday) a little after 4:00 pm. We have reported on many Gush Etzion Junction attacks since the current wave of terror attacks (sometimes called the Stabbing Intifada) got underway roughly 19 months ago.

Today's attack involved a Mazda 5 wagon with white PA plates that, driving from the south in the direction of Jerusalem, crashed into the rear end of an Israeli bus at the hitch-hiking post just north of the junction, according to Ynet, striking a man aged about seventy who evidently had just gotten off the bus and was standing next to it.

The victim was described as conscious but disoriented with head injuries. He was treated by medics on the spot before being taken for emergency care to Jerusalem’s Shaarei Zedek Medical Center hospital. His injuries are said not to be life-threatening.

The attack vehicle and the bus it rammed. The
driver was shot by alert IDF forces stationed
near the scene and died of his wounds later
in hospital. [Image Source]

Times of Israel says the driver of the attack vehicle was shot by IDF soldiers stationed near the scene of the ramming, and was rushed for emergency care to the same Jerusalem hospital - Shaarei Zedek - as his victim. He was received there in critical condition after getting initial treatment at the scene by IDF medics and pronounced dead shortly afterwards, according to an army spokesperson. His identity was given as Sahib Mousa Mashahrah, 21, from the village of al-Sawahreh. In his car, police found a large knife (photo above) of the sort that has played a role in many recent knifings of Israeli victims.

Ma'an News Agency, reporting in English, said

photographs of the scene published by Israeli media showed that the Palestinian vehicle had seemingly collided with the back of a bus. The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed later in the afternoon that the Palestinian succumbed to wounds sustained when he was shot by soldiers at the scene, identifying him as Suhaib Moussa Mashour Mashahra, 21, from the Jerusalem-district village of al-Sawahira.

In its Arabic version, the same Ma'an suggested that the circumstances - the Arab vehicle crashing into the back of an Israeli bus - indicated that it was probably not an attack but a mere accident. And that the driver is a martyr.

The existence of the knife next to the driver's seat goes unmentioned.

15-Mar-17: A vehicle ramming attack in Gush Etzion is thwarted... by bollards

After the attack vehicle came to a halt [Image Source]

Time to give thanks for the basic, low-tech security devices that save Israeli lives.

Around 3:45 this afternoon (Wednesday) south of Jerusalem at busy Gush Etzion Junction, a young Arab woman - really a girl - of 16 from Beit Fajjar was behind the wheel of a late model Ford Mondeo sedan with white Palestinian Authority license plates which swerved violently across the traffic divider from the opposite side of the highway and smashed at high speed into a group of civilians and soldiers standing at a public bus stop.

Fortunately for everyone concerned, this was one of the many Israeli stops where metal posts - bollards - had been installed to protect travelers waiting for a bus and to prevent what today's evident attacker had in mind. Her vehicle crashed into the posts, and the injuries to the Israelis watching in horror were limited to shock and abrasions.

The bus stops at Gush Etzion - a cluster of Israeli communities located roughly half way between the capital Jerusalem and Hebron - have been frequent targets during the past two years of (inaccurately named) lone-wolf terror attacks, many of them drive-by shootings and vehicle rammings directed at Israeli pedestrians and commuters. That's why there is a heavy military and security presence there round the clock.

In the words of a Ynet report:

The girl, from Beit Fajjar, rammed her car into a bus stop at the Gush Etzion junction, where several people were waiting, raising the soldiers' suspicions... IDF troops shot and seriously wounded [the driver] who attempted to carry out a terror attack... [Ynet, March 15, 2017]

The driver/assailant was taken to hospital by ambulance in critical condition. Early reports said she died of her injuries - whether from bullets or high-speed impact is unclear. Other Israeli reports from later in the afternoon said she was in fact alive and recovering.

Arabic-language news media name her as Fatima Jibrin Taqatqa. Beit Fajjar is located south of Bethlehem and adjacent to Gush Etzion. The head of its local municipal authority is also a Taqatqa. A quick Google scan shows numerous Taqatqas from Beit Fajjar who have been involved in violent Arab-on-Israeli activities. Here on this blog. we reported on another Taqatqa woman from Beit Fajjar who carried out a stabbing ["02-Dec-14: Yesterday's knifing attack at Gush Etzion Junction: prologue and epilogue"] and on a 19 year-old Taqatqa male who carried out a stabbing a year ago [here].

The version of events published by Ma'an News Agency follows the propaganda outlet's customary template. Headlined "Palestinian girl shot, injured at Gush Etzion junction after alleged vehicular attack", it includes the same video clip as the one embedded above, but describes the events a little differently:

Security camera footage of the events showed a car seemingly losing control at the junction, going over a median strip, and hitting posts near a bus station... Palestinian Red Crescent spokeswoman told Ma'an that the organization was unable to ascertain the health condition of the Palestinian woman, as she was taken away by Israeli ambulance services before Red Crescent ambulances reached the scene. Israeli news outlet Ynet had initially reported that the woman was killed, however the report later indicated that the woman survived the shooting, but was in a critical condition... [Ma'an]

Sixteen is below the age for holding a drivers license in Israel. A Wikipedia source says the minimum age for holding a drivers license in the Palestinian Authority is 18. Clearly this driver was not licensed to be wielding this afternoon's weapon.

30-Oct-16: Another vehicle ramming attack, another shooting attack, another "martyr"

This evening's attack vehicle after IDF forces stopped it and its
driver [Image Source]

Haaretz reports ["Three wounded troops hurt in West Bank car-ramming", October 30, 2016] on an Arab-on-Israeli vehicle-ramming attack late this afternoon in Beit Ummar, a town that has earned itself [click here] a reputation for wanton violence in recent years.

A Palestinian driver was shot dead after running over three Border Policemen north of the West Bank city of Hebron. The three troops were lightly wounded. The incident occurred in Beit Omar, north of Hebron. The victims were evacuated to a hospital in Jerusalem by the Magen David Adom ambulance service... [In addition, a] Palestinian teen was killed in Beit Omar last Thursday after he pelted an army patrol jeep with stones. Military Police have since opened an investigation into the incident.

Times of Israel, quoting Arab sources, names the driver of the ramming car as Khaled Ahmad Aylan, 23 years old, of Beit Ummar. The Arab news source Ma'an News Agency calls him aKhalid Ahmad Elayyan Ikhlayyil, and in its Arabic version [here] gives prominence to a smiling portrait of the would-be killer, calling him (who's surprised by this?) shahid, Arabic for "martyr". 

As we noted last night ["29-Oct-16: Knives, cars, guns: Israeli security thwarts weekend attacks"], another vehicle-ramming attack was launched against Israelis this past Friday near Ofra.

The same Haaretz article also reports about a shooting attack last night that brought with it echoes of the intense violence of the early 2000s:

On Saturday evening, gunmen opened fire toward Israelis driving near the Karmei Tzur settlement. No casualties or damage were reported and a manhunt is underway for the assailants.

The editors at Haaretz don't name last night's victim who, thankfully, escaped uninjured. She is Ruthie Gillis whose vehicle came under fire as she was driving from her home in Karmei Tzur towards Jerusalem. Her husband, Dr. Shmuel Gillis, a respected haematologist at Hadassah hospital in Ein Karem, was murdered by gun-firing Arabs on the same road fifteen years earlier in 2001 as he was driving home from the hospital to his wife and five young children.

He treated patients suffering from leukemia and lymphoma, not only from Israel but also from Gaza, Ramallah, Nablus, and even from Jordan and Egypt. One of his patients, an Arab woman, described him as "better than an angel"... [Source]

The savagery that holds much of Palestinian Arab society and its leadership in its fierce grip pays scant attention to whether Israeli victims are life-saving doctors or angels. As we wrote here ["18-Oct-16: What do the Palestinian Arabs think and feel now?"] less than two weeks ago

Palestinian Arab support for... "an armed intifada" is currently high, as it has been for a long time. Three months ago, it stood at 54%. In this latest poll, it's down all the way to 48% - which still means every second Palestinian Arab favours the continuation of a shooting/stabbing/ramming campaign against Israeli civilians. Think about that for a moment, and consider what it means for those of us who come into contact with them every day. 

27-Oct-16: Who put those knives into the hands of these two little Palestinian Arab boys?

Children and their pure blood: It's a deeply offensive theme that runs strongly
through the messages PA president Abbas delivers to his people.
Why is no one other than advocates for Israel outraged by this? [Image Source]

The Times of Israel reported late last night (Wednesday) on fresh evidence, if any were needed, of how Palestinian Arab society appears to have hit bottom and continues to dig down:

Two Palestinian children carrying knives were detained outside a West Bank settlement, south of Jerusalem, on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said. “A short while ago forces identified and apprehended two Palestinian children under the age of ten near the community of Migdal Oz,” the army said. “During the initial questioning the children admitted to have been sent, armed with knives, in order to carry out a terror attack.” The two were spotted near the security fence. IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner said the pair were just eight years old... ["Palestinian kids, 8, detained with knives outside settlement", Times of Israel, October 26, 2016]

That's no typo. The two attackers armed with knives, intending to execute a terror attack, are eight years old. 

Photos of the two knives seized from the children are published in this morning's news. We did a Google image search of that image a few minutes ago; it appears, not so surprisingly, that interest in those weapons of murder and the children from whom they were taken, is limited at this point to the Israeli media. 

Not surprisingly, the Palestinian Arab news channel Ma'an has nothing about it in English at this hour (it's 9:30 am). But their Arabic site does have a brief report here; while it offers no reflections, analysis or commentary on what armed 8 year olds stand for in the larger view of things, it does include IDF security cam footage of the two children making their way in the dark to the outskirts of Migdal Oz.

(Migdal Oz is a kibbutz of some 500 residents, one of the 22 communities that comprise Gush Etzion, the Etzion Bloc, located some 15 minutes drive south of the capital, Jerusalem.)

[UPDATE October 29, 2016: Ynet reports the two little children are from Beit Fajjar. That's a town of some 12,000 people located a few kilometers south of Bethlehem in the area controlled by the PA, and a place with a well-deserved reputation for Arab-on-Israeli violence. It's featured in several of our past posts. Ynet: "During questioning, the children said an adult man gave them the knives and told them to carry out an attack. They were transferred to Palestinian police." We're not certain but we think Ynet is saying the PA now have control of the children. Will we hear any more about this?]

The stunning phenomenon of sub-teen children engaging in actual lethal attacks on Israelis, generally stabbing/slashing attacks, is not new. Nor is the sight of babies, toddlers and little children posing for photographs while equipped - presumably by their parents or guardians or teachers or commanding officers - with killing tools.

There is no way of avoiding the reality that large swathes of Palestinian Arab society are in the thrall of a passionate embrace of vicious bigotry, murderous savagery and explicit incitement of their own children and grandchildren to murder and to be killed.

Two outside actors deserve a special mention in this grotesquerie:

• The central role of UNRWA, ostensibly an agency that exists to ameliorate the suffering of Arab refugees (Palestinian Arab refugees to be more precise) but in reality a cornerstone of the seven-decades-long Arab strategy to keep the Palestinian Arabs displaced, as miserable as possible and in the news - ought to be acknowledged at this point. By their own reckoning, they play a huge role in the education of Palestinian Arab children. They are certainly part of the problem and not of the solution.
• Amnesty International's increasingly explicit identification with the practitioners of the Palestinian Arab brand of terror makes plain their abandonment of principle and betrayal of their supporters' values. As we have noted several times [most recently here: "20-Sep-16: Another Pal Arab boy with a knife died today - exactly as the PA intended him to"], there's no longer anything to expect from them.

There are more than 80 of our blog posts that have the tag "Weaponizing Children". This would be an excellent time to re-acquaint ourselves with the betrayal of, and the outrages perpetrated on, the children of Palestinian Arab society by those responsible for their well-being.

It's a reality that's difficult to deny or ignore. Plenty of reporters and their editors nonetheless do just that. 

Here's an example that has gotten plenty of airing in Israel-friendly channels but much less by the mainstream news reporting industry. It depicts "moderate" Abbas last year speaking in a video [translated from Arabic by Palestinian Media Watch and featured in this post of ours: "13-Oct-15: A bloody day and the malevolence behind it"]:

"We bless you [referring to those carrying out Ribat, the pursuit of religious conflict and/or war to protect land claimed to be Islamic], we bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr (shahid) will reach paradise, and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah. The Al-Aqsa [mosque] is ours, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is ours, and they [the Israelis, the Jews] have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem." [PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, September 16, 2015]

Yes: Every drop of blood. Simple language. So simple, a child could understand it.

Now (as we wrote a year ago) if you were a callow teenage boy or girl of 13, 14, 15, and getting bombarded in the mosque and at school and on the street where you hang with your friends, always, always about Jerusalem and its sacred state - and then the president comes along and promises you paradise and a reward from Heaven, and a free pass to do whatever harm to the Jews that you can imagine, wouldn't your mother's largest kitchen knife be the very next thing you go looking for?

If any of Abbas adviser's are reading this, and want to deny the claim, they're invited to please send us written evidence of the PA president's calls to his people to stop their blood-lusting violence, their overt and cold-blooded weaponization of their society's children, and their hunting for defenceless, civilian Israelis at bus stops, tram stops and shopping precincts.

For Europeans reading this - congratulations! None of this could have happened without the tax money you pay to your governments who in turn send millions of Euros to Ramallah to enable Abbas and his henchmen to get away with murder. Click on "Rewards for Terror" to learn more.

Finally, with fresh thoughts in our minds of a pair of eight-year boys in the hands of police, and thinking back to an earlier blog post ["15-Jul-16: Abbas, who praises vehicle rammers to the sky, has just (yes) condemned the French savagery"], here's a reflection on the leader of the depraved clique that stands at the heart of these awful events, and on those who ought to be exposing this sickness but aren't:

Abbas is no moderate. He's not a moderate liar. He is not even a moderate kleptocrat. He formulates his views carefully and in odious ways that are frequently fig-leafed by a compliant media concerned that the man's true views and actions might accidentally get better known outside the fellowship of Pal Arab advocates. In fact, as we see it, the only thing more loathsome than this man's actions - and especially his incitement to murderous stabbings, to vehicle rammings, to shootings and their impact on the lives lived by ordinary people in this part of the world - is the stunning ignorance of reporters and their editors. With the journalistic equivalent of a straight face, they manage to publish transparent nonsense like this afternoon's Abbas "condemnation" without falling off their stools laughing or becoming paralytic with embarrassment.

And one additional request. Please share this item we wrote at the start of the year: "09-Feb-16: The unthinkable things Palestinian Arab society wants for and from its children"

18-Sep-16: Sunday morning terror attack in Efrat: assailant stabs an Israeli and is stopped

A general view of Efrat [Image Source]

There's been terrorist action south of Jerusalem in the thriving community of Efrat. From the Jewish Press website this morning (Sunday):

An IDF officer was wounded inside the Gush Etzion town of Efrat in a terror attack, early Sunday morning, according to the IDF. The town’s security cameras saw a suspicious figure just outside the perimeter of the town at 2 AM. Local security forces and the IDF were called out and searched all night for the terrorist who was hiding in some bushes inside the town. At around 6 AM the terrorist jumped out of his hiding spot and stabbed an IDF officer involved in the search.
The attack happened at the entrance to Tziporen Street, next to Pitom HaKetoret Street, in the Zayit neighborhood.
Hatzalah Judea and Samaria says the officer is in moderate condition, with a wound to the stomach. He was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital.
The terrorist was shot and neutralized, and is currently listed in moderate condition, with a bullet wound to the head, according to Hadassah hospital (the terrorist was originally listed in critical condition, this may be a mistake in the hospital’s report).
The town of Efrat was in lockdown until 7 AM while security teams searched for possible additional terrorists.
The terrorist had 2 knives on him. A more serious attack was foiled.
7:09 AM: The lockdown is over. Schools will starting on time, with additional security.

The Times of Israel adds some details:

The [IDF] officer, a reservist, was said to be in moderate-to-serious condition by Magen David Adom emergency medical personnel, but he was later upgraded to moderate condition at the hospital. The incident occurred near the entrance to the settlement, where the officer’s unit had been carrying out a sweep of the area... He was stabbed “near the armpit,” and has been taken to Jerusalem Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, according to a spokesperson for the medical center. The 22-year-old victim “communicated with us the whole way to the hospital and was in stable condition,” MDA paramedics Issa Dawith and Moshe Benita said.
The attacker was shot immediately after stabbing the victim, the army said. The assailant, approximately 30 years old, was also taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem for treatment, the army said. He was moderately injured, with a gunshot wound to the head, a hospital spokesperson said. The stabbing came approximately four hours after the community’s security system picked up movement some 440 yards (440 meters) from the settlement’s fence, according to the note sent to resident. [As we noted in our blog last night] The IDF deployed an additional infantry battalion to the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday evening, following two days of attacks against soldiers and civilians, the army said.

Little doubt that certain people on the Palestinian Arab side have an elevated interest currently in increasing the levels of tension, threat and danger.

UPDATE September 18, 2016 at 2:00 pm: This morning's attacker in Efrat is identified, according to Times of Israel, as Baha a-Din Muhammad Khalil, about 30 years old. The Bethlehem-based Arab news channel Ma'an News Agency calls him Bahaiddin Muhammad Khalil Odeh, and says he's a 20 year old from the village of Wadi Rahhal, northeast of Efrat.

10-Jul-16: Saturday night Arab-on-Israel gunfire attack on car-full of children in Gush Etzion

The injured driver: No other family member in the vehicle
was hurt [Image Source]

Visitors to Israel and especially to the capital know that the Gush Etzion communities are located just a few minutes drive south of Jerusalem and are a thriving component of the greater Jerusalem urban area. In fact, they offer some of the most pleasant living environments in all of Israel.

But they are also located within close proximity of Hebron from where extreme Arab-on-Israel violence has emanated since at least the tragic massacre of 1929 in which on a single day (August 24) about seventy defenseless Jews were slaughtered, holy sites were pillaged and destroyed, and the entire Jewish population which had lived, worked and studied there for centuries was forcibly removed.

Polite reminder to the history-challenged: There were at that time no "oppressive" IDF checkpoints, no occupation, no "illegal settlements", no "Apartheid" security barrier. But there certainly was Arab-on-Jew hatred on a scale that defies the imagination. Some think that has passed. Others see it as a constant.

Now to last night. As reported by Israeli National News ["Man shot, wounded near Tekoa"]

A 30-year-old Israeli man was shot and wounded near the Gush Etzion community of Tekoa on Saturday night. MDA first responders were at the scene and treated the victim. He is now at Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek hospital, where doctors say that he is in moderate condition with a bullet wound to the shin.

The communities of Gush Etzion, sorted by size of population

[Data Source: Wikipedia]

Since that was published, it has become clear the attack was not adjacent to Tekoa but between the small Gush Etzion community of Metzad (previously called Nahal Asfar) and the nearby T-intersection that serves it. Metzad is the southern-most community in Gush Etzion, and has a largely Haredi Jewish population.

Times of Israel says this morning (Sunday) that the IDF is currently

keeping two West Bank villages under closure as a troops searched for a shooter who opened fire at an Israeli car in the area the night before, injuring one person. The Israeli man, who has not been identified by officials, suffered light to moderate injuries and remained hospitalized in Jerusalem Sunday morning after the attack, which occurred on a road in the Etzion settlement bloc southeast of Jerusalem... The man’s wife and five children were in the vehicle with him during the shooting, a spokesperson for the Etzion bloc said... The shooting attack took place south of what’s known as the “T” junction on the highway connecting the east and west sides of the Etzion settlement bloc. The terrorist fled the scene and the army subsequently sealed off the nearby towns of Sa’ir and Al-Aroub as troops searched for the gunner. The army overnight Saturday-Sunday arrested eight Palestinians in the West Bank suspected of involvement in riots and attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers, but were still searching for the attacker. Palestinian media reported on Saturday night that following the closure, clashes broke out between IDF soldiers and residents in Sa’ir after soldiers imposed the closure, which involves surrounding the town and checking anyone leaving or entering.

Those Arab towns now being locked down have some terrorism background. We described what's special about Sa'ir six months ago in "08-Jan-16: Four more thwarted knife attackers, all from one town". It's regarded as a Hamas stronghold, which may surprise people who think that's true only of the terror-addicted Gaza Strip. Al-Aroub was last in our blog posts in April 2016 when one of its citizens launched a strikingly-unsuccessful ax attack on an Israeli [reported here].

In the Hebrew social media, Saturday night's shooting victim is described [here] as a Haredi resident of Netivot who had been a Sabbath guest in Metzad, along with his wife and children, all of them in the vehicle at the time of the shooting. Other than the driver, no one else was injured in the terror attack. Netivot is some 100 kilometers (an hour and a half's drive) from Metzad. A later report identifies him as Eitan Finkel. That's him in the photo at the top. We wish him a speedy and full recovery from his injuries. His six children were inside the car when it came under fire.

Since October 2015, according to a Times of Israel tally, 35 Israelis and four others have been killed and hundreds more injured in the wave of Arab-on-Israeli attacks. Some 200 Palestinian Arabs have been killed, about two-thirds of them the actual attackers in the course of their jihadist assaults, with the remainder killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.

28-Apr-16: Terror-by-knifing attack foiled at Qalandiya; assailant, again, is a child

The attackers came equipped with these stabbing
implements - two identical kitchen knives
and a switchblade found on the body of the young male
[Image Source: Israel Police]

A violent attack at the Qalandiya security checkpoint yesterday (Wednesday) on Jerusalem's north side has cost a pair of Palestinian Arabs, a young married woman and her teenage brother, their lives.

Times of Israel reports that, while no Israelis from among the security personnel attacked suffered any injuries, the two assailants, armed with knives, were killed after attempting to attack the heavily-armed Israelis.

The attackers are identified as Maram Salih Hassan Abu Ismail, a woman of 23, and her brother Ibrahim Saleh Taha, 16. Both are said to be from Surif, an Arab community located south of Jerusalem and north of Hebron. Ma'an News Agency says the woman is the mother of two children and pregnant with a third.

Surif is familiar to Israelis with a sense of history. It is home to most of the Arab mob who carried out a total massacre of the convoy of Jews (among them Frimet Roth's cousin Eliyahu Herskowitz ז"ל) known as the Lamed Heh. Its 35 members had set out on foot in January 1948 with the goal of relieving the Arab siege on the Gush Etzion communities. Those beleagured communities, numerically overwhelmed by the surrounding enemies, eventually fell to the invading the Arab Legion, the military arm of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, on Friday May 14, 1948, some hours before Israel’s independence was declared in Tel Aviv. They remained, judenrein, under Jordanian military occupation for the next 19 years. The massacre and then capture of the Gush was "one of the major episodes of the State of Israel-in-the-making", playing a significant role in Israeli collective memory. Wikipedia reminds us that the post-1967 revival and massive flourishing of the Gush Etzion communities is regarded as deeply symbolic, linked in the Israeli psyche to the massive loss of life in Israel's War of Independence.

Ynet's report of yesterday's terrorist attack says the Arab couple

attempted to walk through a passage intended for vehicle entry and began speeding up in the direction of Border policemen stationed at the scene. The female assailant had her hand in her bag in which there was a knife. The male assailant's hand was held behind his back which aroused the security forces suspicion. The police called upon them to stop several times. However they continued to quickly approach in their direction. The police continued to call upon them to stop and throw down the bag the woman was holding. The woman stopped close to the Border policemen, both of them took several steps backwards and then suddenly they turned towards the forces, the woman took out a knife and threw it straight at the policeman closest to her. The policeman was not injured. The security forces acted quickly and shot them dead. A search of the area revealed that in addition to the woman's knife, the male had a similar knife in his belt, as well as a pocket knife.

As always, there's an air of Rashomon ("alternative, self-serving and contradictory versions of the same incident" embodying "multiple eye-witness testimonies of an event contain conflicting information") already evident in parts of the media.

Arabic-language audiences are getting a sadly-familiar-sounding narrative at considerable odds with the Israel Police and media accounts. An Iranian news source calls yesterday's thwarted terror attack a "massacre". A Gazan source refers to a "child martyr", and martyr-posters are, not surprisingly, online [here] already. Al Safir, a Palestinian Arab news outlet, calls what happened an "execution". So does this Gulf news source. For Aljazeera, it's about the woman's orphaned children, and the death of a younger brother. As far as we can tell, none of those Arabic reports shows the knives that were removed from the clutches of the attackers.

As usual, the events we see as terrorism are described by the Arab and Muslim media to Arab news consumers context-free form, devoid of connection to the ongoing wave of knifings, rammings, shootings, bombings. Forgotten for the moment are the multiple public acts of glorification of women, sub-teen and teenage children enjoying the acclaim of Arabs and Moslems from across the spectrum - and at the highest levels of Palestinian Arab power - for the violence of their usually-pointless murderous assaults on Jews. It's an ongoing tragedy for all concerned.

Haaretz says

Hassan Tahah, another sibling, told Haaretz that he doesn't believe his sister was planning to carry out an attack. "We have no details about what transpired and no one briefed us, but I don't believe this whole terrorist attack story," he said. According to him, his sister was on her way to a doctor's appointment, accompanied by his brother. "She was probably lost, or didn't understand what was going on at the roadblock, and the soldiers shot her and my brother," he said.

We wrote about another terror-minded sixteen year-old from Surif with a knife in the wake of an earlier attack ["23-Oct-15: Scenes from a stabbing/ramming/shooting war of terror"] some months ago. And for a sense of some of the numerous recent Arab-on-Israeli attacks at Qalandiya, click here.

18-Mar-16: Two Friday afternoon terror attacks, and both are thwarted

It's a delightful Friday afternoon here in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, the conditions are optimal for the kind of lethal violence that plagues the lives of so many people wanting to do constructive and peaceable things.

Two attempts to stab Israelis in the West Bank were thwarted within minutes of each other Friday afternoon.

The first of two armed attacks occurred at the Sha'ar Binyamin industrial zone [Wikipedia]. Unless a person is hopelessly addled by hatred of Israelis and Jews, one of the things worth knowing about the location is that it is home to a large cluster of businesses where Israelis and Palestinians work co-operatively and profitably side by side. These businesses include many factories as well as a thriving Rami Levy supermarket that has been attacked by Arab-on-Israeli terrorists multiple times. We last posted about it a month ago; that attack cost the life of a young husband and father, Tuvia Weissman, as well as the lives of the Palestinian Arab savages who carried it out.

Security forces spotted two Arab youths this afternoon (Friday) around 3:00 pm getting out of a car with Palestinian Authority (PA) plates at the entrance to the industrial zone. Israel National News says their behavior as they walked toward the entrance aroused the suspicions of the forces, who promptly stopped them and, at gunpoint, carried out a body search. Turns out they were armed with knives, which in these times and these places invariably indicates an intention to kill. These attackers were lucky: they were arrested and are now being interrogated at the Binyamin police station. Police and IDF forces are searching for the car vehicle that brought them to the scene.

Minutes later, according to Times of Israel, a Palestinian Arab exited a vehicle near the Etzion Junction, scene of many Arab-on-Israeli attacks in the past half year. Today's attacker attempted to stab IDF soldiers stationed at the traffic circle, and was shot and killed in the attempt. There are no reports of other casualties.

Though there is no confirmation at this stage, we see social media reports [here and here for instance] that the attacker was a female. No indication of age. Ma'an, a Palestinian Arab news source, calls the attacker a man in his twenties. Allegedly. It identifies him as "Mahmud Ahmad Abu Fanunah, 21, from the Hebron district." No confirmation at this stage.

04-Mar-16: This morning's Arab-on-Israeli vehicle-ramming attack: the Arabic media version

From the scene of this morning's terror attack [Source: Twitter]

The Arab media are reporting this morning's latest Gush Etzion attack on Israelis in customary fashion.

Quoting the PA's Ministry of Health, the driver of the attack vehicle, in which a knife was found resting on the dashboard, is described by the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency's English-language report as

34-year-old Amani Husni Sabatin from the nearby village of Husan in western Bethlehem. The head of Husan's village council, Hasan Hamamreh, told Ma'an that Israeli forces had sealed the eastern and western entrances of the village following Sabatin's death. He rejected the army's allegations that she had attempted to carry out an attack, saying her death was an "obvious execution" that continues Israel's crimes and violations against Palestinians. Hamamreh said Sabatin was married and the mother of four children, the eldest of whom is a 14-year-old daughter. Her husband works in Israel.

The husband's place of work might explain the car's yellow license plates. (And Palestinian Information Center's Twitter feed reports she is a mother of five.)

Ma'an usually resorts to boiler-plate reportage in its English-language edition when covering the extreme violence of the past five months of Arab-on-Israeli attacks. Today is no exception, via an article headlined "Palestinian woman shot dead after alleged car attack at Gush Etzion":

The Gush Etzion junction -- the entrance point to the illegal Gush Etzion settlement bloc -- has seen numerous deadly encounters since a surge of violence shook the occupied Palestinian territory at the beginning of October last year... While Israel alleges many of those were attempting to attack Israelis when they were shot, Palestinians and rights groups have disputed Israel's version of events in a number of cases.

The Ma'an editors are customarily less restrained in their Arabic-language articles. In today's edition, the response of the armed IDF soldiers guarding pedestrian and vehicle traffic round the clock in the frequently-targeted Etzion Junction is described in an article headed "Occupation executes mother of four". The attempted killer, as expected, is called a "martyr" not only here but right across the Arabic social media this afternoon. Images are posted widely (here, for instance) showing the dead woman's bewildered-looking children holding a portrait of their mother.

04-Mar-16: Vehicle-ramming attack on Israelis at Gush Etzion Junction this morning

The dashboard of the attacker's vehicle: She
had a knife at the ready [Image Source]

A sunny Friday morning here, and already (as of about 7:20 this morning, according to this social media report) a vehicle-ramming attack is reported from Tzomet Hagush, the traffic roundabout serving several of the Gush Etzion communities south of Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Times of Israel says an Arab female rammed her car into a group of Israelis standing in the traffic circle, striking a young male in IDF uniform and injuring him. Soldiers at the scene fired at the driver several times through the windshield (to judge by the photographs of the Hyundai sedan that have appeared online in the last few minutes). There is no confirmation yet that she was killed. But that's the clear impression conveyed by the photos. The car has yellow Israeli license plates, not the green or white plates issued by the PA.

The injured Israeli, evidently about 20, was taken by ambulance to Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center hospital and is being treated there for leg injuries and lacerations.

Etzion Junction has been a focus of violent attacks by Palestinian Arabs in the past four months. Among Jews and/or Israelis killed there in those terror assaults are Ezra Schwartz, Rabbi Yaakov Don, Shaadi Arfa of Hebron, Hadar Buchris and Eliav Gelman, all of them ignored in the UN report on recent terror attacks about which we posted yesterday.

There's little doubt this morning's terror attack will be ignored in the same way.

UPDATE Friday March 4, 2016 at 8:30 am - Ynet reports

The woman, who arrived at the junction from the direction of Jerusalem, drove onto the sidewalk and hit one of the soldiers, lightly wounding him. Other soldiers were able to get out of the way on time. She was shot to death by soldiers from the Oketz Unit posted at the junction, and a knife was found on the dashboard of her vehicle.

Sources in the Arabic media identify this morning's vehicle rammer as Amani Hosni Jawad Sabatin, a female of 34 from Husan, an Arab town south of Bethlehem. She's naturally being hailed by the usual death-cult promoters as a "martyr".

09-Feb-16: In Gush Etzion, another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing

The scene of the stabbing attack at Neve Daniel this evening
[Image Source]

The details are still sketchy, but it appears an Israeli was stabbed this afternoon at the entrance to the Israeli community of Neve Daniel (population: about 400 families) which abuts Highway 60 in Gush Etzion, a few minutes drive south of Jerusalem.

This source (in Hebrew) says the attacker fled into a nearby Arab village. First reports appeared around dusk, roughly 5:15 this afternoon (Tuesday). Details coming.

UPDATE Tuesday February 9, 2016 - 6:00 pm: The Israeli victim is described by Ynet as a 30-year-old man. He sustained knifing injuries to the head and shoulder and is classified as moderately injured:

The victim said he was running by himself near Neve Daniel when he was stabbed and that he continued onwards until the settlement's security guard noticed him and called for urgent help. The victim pointed towards the direction in which believed the terrorist fled, which was in the direction of [Nahalin (Arabic: نحالين‎) a close-by Arab settlement] - Ynet.

UPDATE  Tuesday February 9, 2016 - 7:00 pm: We know the identity of the Israeli victim. Times of Israel names him as Tomer Ditur, age 28, a resident of the nearby Gush Etzion-area kibbutz, Rosh Tzurim, An IDF spokesperson says the army has sealed off Nahalin as it searches for the knifer.

08-Jan-16: Four more thwarted knife attackers, all from one town

Another Al-Shalaldeh "martyr" funeral in the same town of Sa'er
November 2015 [Image Source]

We posted here last night ["07-Jan-16: Thursday evening attempted terror attacks in Gush Etzion and Jerusalem"] about an attempt by a trio of Palestinian Arabs to carry out another Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack at Gush Etzion Junction.

Now, via the Arab news media, we have some background on who those attackers were:

The three Palestinians were later identified as cousins Ahmad Salim Abd al-Majid Kawazba, Alaa Abed Muhammad Kawazba, and Muhannad Ziyad Kawazba, all from the town of Sair northeast of Hebron. [Ma'an News Agency, January 7, 2016]

All of them Kawazba clans-men. All from the same town. That same Arab media source goes on to refer to a separate stabbing attack, also last night, shortly after the one at Gush Etzion Junction, and the attacker again is from the same place:

[A]nother Palestinian from the same town, identified as 16-year-old Khalil Muhammad al-Shalaldah, was shot dead by Israeli forces after he allegedly attempted to carry out a stabbing attack at the Beit Einun junction northeast of Hebron. [Ma'an News Agency, January 7, 2016]

(Other members of the Al-Shalaldeh clan featured in the news during November 2015.)

The Kawazba clan and their town of Sa'ir/Sa'er/Sair/Sier, population about 18,000, appeared in an earlier post of ours just two days before: "05-Jan-16: In Gush Etzion, a Tuesday morning stabbing attack". There we noted that

Sair (or Sa'er or Sa'ir) is mentioned in the ancient biblical Book of Joshua (15:54) as ציער. The town today is considered a Hamas stronghold, like many of the communities in the area ("West Bank") nominally controlled by the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority.

In their tradition, one not widely shared by others, the town is also the site of the tomb of the Biblical figure Esau (about which Google provides some background for those who skipped Sunday school.)

Notice that in its Arabic-language report - though not in the English-language version - last night, the Ma'an News Agency article about the stabbers from Seir calls them "martyrs" [شهداء] in both the headline and the story itself.

That word is a key component in the escalating Palestinian Arab process of incitement and glorification of those who indiscriminately attack Israeli civilians and security personnel. It is rarely used in the Ma'an English-language edition, probably on grounds of being not so politically correct. Plainly, it colors Ma'an as part of the incitement frenzy that is currently setting the tone throughout the Palestinian Arab sphere. That's something Ma'an's European funders might be interested to know. (Or perhaps not.)

Hamas, according to this Arabic-language report, calls Seir "the citadel of the Jerusalem intifada". It has declared today, Friday, a day of rage in honor of the town's newest "martyrs" and their "pure blood".

07-Jan-16: Thursday evening attempted terror attacks in Gush Etzion and Jerusalem

There are reports - still somewhat sketchy at this stage - of an attempted Arab-on-Israeli terror attack at Gush Etzion Junction around 8 this evening (Thursday), and the elimination of three suspected terrorists. The Jerusalem Post's report says three would-be assailants

attempted to carry out a stabbing attack Thursday night against IDF forces at the Gush Etizion junction in the West Bank, according to initial reports. Security forces shot the terrorists, killing two. The third attacker was in critical condition. There were no injuries on the Israeli side. 

Times of Israel says

three attackers armed with knives attempted to stab soldiers guarding the Gush Etzion Junction. The IDF force thwarted the attack, responding to imminent danger and shooting the perpetrators, resulting in the death of two, the army says. The third attacker is receiving medical treatment at the scene. No Israelis were injured in the attempted attack.

A little earlier this evening, shortly before this incident, a Palestinian Arab boy of sixteen was arrested at one of the entrances to Jerusalem and found to have a knife hidden in his clothing. Bitter experience of the past three months has served to harden the resolve of security officials here to the matter of how to respond to such events. In this case, Border Police at a security checkpoint became suspicious for reasons not yet reported and in the course of searching the boy found the knife [Times of Israel] He's presumably in the hands of interrogators at this point.

More details about both terror apprehensions when we have them.