30-Oct-19: A woman, a knife, a holy place

Today's would-be knifer brandished this
weapon [Image Source]

Female Palestinian Arabs equipped with concealed knives, possessed of extremely malicious intentions and making their way into or near the venerated Tomb of the Patriarchs in the holy city of Hebron are barely news any more.

Another was intercepted there this morning (Wednesday):

Suspect said to be in critical condition after attempted stabbing attack at Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site | A Palestinian woman tried to stab Israeli security forces Wednesday morning at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and was shot and critically wounded by officers at the scene, according to security forces. The woman, who wasn’t immediately identified, brandished a knife at the flashpoint West Bank holy site and attempted to attack one of the police officers deployed there, the Border Police said in a statement. Officers subsequently opened fire, and medical officials said she was in critical conditions, the statement said. The tense city of Hebron, where Palestinians live in close proximity to settlers who are guarded by Israeli troops, has been the scene of numerous stabbings and attempted stabbings in recent years. Last month, a 15-year-old Palestinian teenager was arrested after a knife was found in his bag among school textbooks during a security screening. ["Palestinian woman tries to stab Israeli troops in Hebron, is shot – police", Times of Israel, October 30, 2019]

There's a video clip here posted to Twitter by the news service of Israel's KAN public broadcaster.

Associated Press gives a characteristically laconic version of the background to this morning's thwarted murder/s, saying that

Palestinians have killed over 60 Israelis in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks since 2015. Israeli forces have killed over 260 Palestinians in that same period. Israel has described most of the Palestinians killed as attackers, but occasional clashes between protesters and soldiers have also turned deadly.

"Israel has described most of the Palestinians killed as attackers" says the newsagency. But presumably rational people like those the AP editors are writing for understand that it's all subjective and just ignore the knives, the incitement, the Palestinian street's celebrations accompanying Arab-on-Israeli stabbings.

Worth noting that during the 19 massively destructive years of Jordanian military occupation, no Jews were permitted into the Tomb, considered in Jewish tradition to be the second-holiest site in the world after Jerusalem's Temple Mount.

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-Apr-19: Two more thwarted terror attacks at heavily-traveled security checkpoint outside Jerusalem

Image Source: Video of the young female attacker
recorded from inside the Arab bus [Source]

Too many observers of what goes on here in Israel talk about terrorism being behind us, finished, defeated. 

It's certainly not so.

A Palestinian woman tried to stab security forces while they were checking a bus passing through the A'Zaim checkpoint next to Jerusalem on Wednesday. Police fired into the air and police detectives who happened to be in the area were able to incapacitate the woman and take away the knife. No injuries were reported. The woman is being interrogated.
On Tuesday, at the same checkpoint, multiple guns and magazines and hundreds of bullets were found in the car of a Palestinian family. The driver's wife, young daughter and days-old son were in the car when it was stopped. [Jerusalem Post, April 10, 2019]

The "Palestinian woman" in yesterday's mid-afternoon attack looks to us more like a girl than an adult woman. Israel National News says she was a resident of Tulkarm.

The video captured from inside the Arab bus out of which she emerged during what we think was a routine security check leaves no doubt that she was armed with and was brandishing a knife. In the specific circumstances, it's clear she was more interested in offense than defence.

A-Zaim (sometimes written Az-Za'ayyem and Al-Zaim; א-זעיים in Hebrew; الزعيم in Arabic) is a busy security checkpoint on one of the roads connecting Maale Adumim with Israel's capital.

A 16 year-old Arab female was intercepted just three months ago ["30-Jan-19: Pal Arab would-be stabber, a 16 year old girl, is stopped before executing an attack near Jerusalem"] at the very same location on Jerusalem's eastern edge. The outcome was far more serious then:

A Palestinian teenage girl was shot dead as she tried to stab an Israeli security officer at a checkpoint outside Jerusalem on Wednesday, police said. According to police, the assailant attacked one of the guards at the A’Zaim crossing east of the capital, in the central West Bank. The Palestinian girl was identified as Samah Mubarak, 16, from the nearby village of al-Ram, the Palestinian Authority’s official Wafa news agency reported... Israeli security officials have said that many attacks by Palestinians, especially women, are driven by personal and domestic issues, more than by ideological considerations. In some cases, Israeli officials have said Palestinians appeared to have carried out attacks or attempted to do so in order to be shot dead by Israeli security forces, as a form of “suicide by cop.” [Times of Israel, January XX, 2019]

Again at A-Zaim, two days ago:

...multiple guns and magazines and hundreds of bullets were found in the car of a Palestinian family. The driver's wife, young daughter and days-old son were in the car when it was stopped. [Jerusalem Post, April 10, 2019]

No one seems to be noting in the news reports (there are very few of them) how appalling it is that a man smuggling a serious weapons cache would use his family, including a new-born infant, as human shields.

12-Mar-19: Arab-on-Israeli attacks edge upwards again

Image Source

It's shaping to be a violent and tense day here in Israel.

Experience suggests this isn't because of some unusual weather pattern. Broadly speaking, violence is something that the Palestinian Arab leadership switches off and on at will. It's clearly on right now.

Some of the more persuasive analysts put this down to the coming together of at least four main factors: Israel's April elections; the expectation of a comprehensive Trump Administration peace agreement proposal; rising tension in the endless jockeying for power and supremacy between the Fatah-controlled Abbas regime and Hamas; and the Palestinian Authority's 's move ["PA Reduces Wages to Employees Israel's payment deduction"] to substantially cut salaries across a wide swathe of the population under its control, unilaterally making an already on-the-ropes economy even more fragile.

Among the acts of violence:

Monday 11:30 pm: Still-unidentified shooters attacked an Israeli vehicle in the northern Samaria district last night (Monday) on a road near the Israeli community of Rehelim (population about 800), south of Nablus/Shechem and located between Kfar Tapuach and Eli. No one was injured, thankfully. But the vehicle was damaged, suggesting the fire could have exacted a heavier toll. Israel National News reports an attempted infiltration this past Friday night just as the Sabbath was being ushered in. The community's "security guards... identified two suspicious figures approaching the town. Rehelim's military security coordinator arrived first, fired a light bomb, and noticed the two suspects running away."

Tuesday 12:45 pm: Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man as he tried to stab them in the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday, the IDF said according to Times of Israel. No one else was injured in the thwarted attack:

IDF soldiers spotted the terrorist armed with a knife as he ran toward them. The soldiers pushed the terrorist back as he tried to run into a nearby civilian building. The soldiers shot the terrorist, thwarting the attack, and he was killed,” the military said... The suspect, armed with a knife, entered the contentious Beit HaShalom building in Hebron, near the Kiryat Arba settlement. A resident of the building, one of the few Jewish-owned structures inside the overwhelmingly Palestinian city, saw and called Israeli security forces to the scene, according to reports from the scene. A video filmed at the scene showed the attacker lying on the ground in the entrance hall of the building with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the chest. The knife was seen on the ground several feet away from him."

Images of the attacker appear in the Hebrew-language social media, here for instance. The would-be knifer is identified by Palestinian Arab officials as Yasser Fuzi Shuweiki. The Ma'an News Agency site (English language edition) calls him Yasser al-Shweiki and rather enigmatically quotes his father saying the son "was distributing notices from the Sharia Court across Hebron City", presumably trying to deflect any suggestion that he was a knifer looking for Israeli stabbing victims. (An Israeli social media commentator says he was the local mailman.) In the Arabic version of Ma'an's account, but not the English, its editors call the would-be knifer, not surprisingly, a martyr:

Palestinian Civil Affairs demanded that the Israeli authorities hand over the body of Yasser Mohammed Fawzi Shweiki, who was killed by Israeli soldiers [and] who worked as a clerk in the Hebron District Court, where he was working before being shot by Israeli soldiers who claimed he had a knife and attempted to stab Against soldiers.

Tuesday Noon: The Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City was sealed off by Israel Police today in the wake of Arab violence that included a firebomb being hurled at officers, followed by arrests and clashes. Times of Israel says:

"Police quickly deployed across the hilltop compound, scuffling with worshipers in the area as they searched for the assailants. In one video, police were seen wrestling a woman to the ground. Ten suspects were arrested and an investigation into the incident was ongoing, police said... Police said they found flammable materials, firecrackers and Molotov cocktails during a search of the Temple Mount after it was closed... The Damascus Gate entrance of the Old City of Jerusalem was also closed and police were dispatched throughout the Old City and East Jerusalem “to prevent and respond to any attempt to disturb public order in response to the serious incident,” police said in a statement."

The president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas complained of “dangerous Israeli escalation” and warned of “serious repercussions.”

Tuesday 4:45 pm: Security forces of the IDF took a Palestinian Arab woman into custody who aroused their suspicions near Beit Hashalom (House of Peace), the site of another, earlier Arab-on-Israel stabbing in Hebron (above). They found, after a careful search of her clothing and person, that she had a knife concealed somewhere not yet reported. Times of Israel says she was promptly arrested and is in the hands of the security forces for questioning.

30-Jan-19: Pal Arab would-be stabber, a 16 year old girl, is stopped before executing an attack near Jerusalem

From the police security cam video

In yet another instance of a thwarted attack by a weaponized child, a teenage Palestinian Arab girl launched a stabbing attack on an Israeli officer at the A-Za'im security checkpoint east of the capital between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem today (Wednesday) at about 10:15 am.

An Israel Police statement, quoted by Times of Israel, said

"A rapid response by additional security forces brought about her neutralization with no injuries to the security personnel... Police are investigating where the female suspect came from, and heightened security is continuing in the area."

The same media source speculates that this may be yet another instance of 

attacks by Palestinians, especially women, [that] are driven by personal and domestic issues, more than by ideological considerations. In some cases, Israeli officials have said Palestinians appeared to have carried out attacks or attempted to do so in order to be shot dead by Israeli security forces, as a form of "suicide by cop".

Later in the day, the assailant was identified in Arab media as Samah Mubarak, aged 16, from the nearby village of a-Ram. A different Israeli news source says she was

Samah Zuhair Mubarak, an 11th grade student from Ramallah, whose family was originally from Gaza... [source]

She died of her wounds according to Palestinian Authority health ministry officials.

Video footage released by the police show a female, draped from head to toe in black and wearing black gloves, approaching the security personnel at the crossing. Police also circulated a photo of the knife in her possession - while throughout the Arab media reports we have scanned, it's claimed she was unarmed and executed in cold blood. 

None of the many thwarted Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks of the past three years (at least) has ever credibly been shown to meet that description. And A-Za'im has seen numerous Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks - vehicle-rammings, stabbings and bombings. 

The claim this time is embellished by the assertion, pulled out of thin air as far as we can tell, that the girl was shot after refusing to undress and remove her black robes. This line of explanation plays tragically well in Palestinian Arab circles.

18-Aug-18: Friday afternoon Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack is thwarted by police - who are accused by attacker's family

Screen-cap from the security video

Security camera video has emerged of a stabbing attack on Israeli police keeping order in Jerusalem's Old City on Friday afternoon.

The would-be knifer, identified subsequently as Ahmed Muhammad Mahameed, 30, an Arab resident of the Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, is seen walking briskly from the direction of the Temple Mount, turning sharply in the direction of a small group of on-duty police, then quickly pulling a knife out and attempting to stab someone. There follows a scuffle which is shown only briefly and then - according to a Times of Israel report - the assailant is shot by one of the police who came under lethal attack and he is killed.

The report goes on to focus on the complaints of the dead attacker's family. They say he was mentally ill and had twice tried to take his own life. They deny that he carried out the attack for nationalistic reasons but fail to offer an explanation - beyond mental illness - for what happened. They also deny that the response of the police was reasonable and say the officer who fired at him was “light with his finger on the trigger.”

“They didn’t have to kill him,” said the assailant’s father, pointing to other instances where police managed to neutralize attackers by shooting at their legs instead of their upper bodies. Mustafa Abu Megged, a friend of Mahameed’s, called his family a “normative” one that would never endorse such conduct. “They could have neutralized him in another way. When it comes to Arabs, they [the police] are easy to pull the trigger,” Megged charged. In addition, the Umm al-Fahm Municipality released a statement Saturday condemning police for what it called the “cold-blooded murder” of its resident.

Members of the family are quoted as well in a Ynet report:

"He suffers from a mental illness and he tried several times to commit suicide. We did not know he was in the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday, he never usually goes there,” said Ahmad’s brother Naseem, in an interview with Ynet... "My brother is a mentally ill person who never thought of harming people... We thought at first that he was misidentified. My brother is not a terrorist. Everyone needs to understand his mental state and not jump to conclusion that are so far from the truth," Naseem vented... ["Family of stabbing attack suspect: He has mental illness", Ynet, August 17, 2018]

There's a video embedded in the Times of Israel report that concludes with an officer reassuring the uniformed men on duty that they acted correctly in defending themselves and that doing so was in accordance with police values. It's hard to disagree with him.

Umm al-Fahm is home to more than 50,000 Arabs, overwhelmingly Muslim and almost all of them Israeli citizens.

For the past two decades, its public life has been increasingly viewed as directed by the outlawed (since 2015) Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement whose leading figure, former mayor of the city (between 1989 and 2001) Sheikh Raed Salah, is identified with Hamas. Salah is notorious for inciting under the slogan "Al-Aqsa is in danger":

In 1996, as events surrounding the authorization of a northern exit to the Western Wall tunnels were unfolding (and which led to violent riots), Salah became aware of how to capitalize politically on matters regarding the Temple Mount and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
He started to hold an annual rally titled “Al Aqsa [Mosque] is in danger” in the northern city of Umm al-Fahm. Thousands usually attended. [Avi Issacharoff, "The Islamic Movement’s Northern Branch — long a thorn in Israel’s side", Times of Israel, November 17, 2015]

We may be about to see the flames of that particular kind of incitement being fanned again.

UPDATE August 21, 2018:

The stabber's funeral in Umm Al-Fahm drew hundreds of participants, turning it into yet another sickening mass rally in support of #PalArab terror. The family had committed to the police to limit its scale and may now have to forfeit the bond they posted: https://t.co/PvkHiME34n pic.twitter.com/O7mBY009Yk

— This Ongoing War (@ThisOngoingWar) August 21, 2018

01-Mar-18: Rachel's Tomb: Yet another Pal Arab female teen with a knife

The concrete walls that today secure ancient Rachel's Tomb [Image Source]

There was another of those utterly pointless attempts around the middle of this morning (according to this Hebrew social media report) to harm Israeli security personnel. Once again this was by (a) a teenage (b) female (c) Arab (d) attacker armed with a knife. The armed assault was fortunately thwarted, the attacker is in the hands of the Israeli security forces for interrogation and no one was injured.

Today's failed attack took place at the Rachel Crossing on the northern edge of Bethlehem. The ancient tomb of the Jewish matriarch Rachel used to be, 25 years ago when we last visited it, just an historical site on the road leading from Bethlehem to southern Jerusalem. 

Then after a series of shooting attacks on Jewish worshipers, the simple tomb became a complex surrounded by thick, high walls and with secure stations for the IDF personnel who do guard duty there. It's a major attraction:

Judaism's third-holiest site, has been the scene of prayer and pilgrimage for more than three thousand years... Rachel, the beloved wife of the third Patriarch, Ya'acov (Jacob), died in childbirth on the way to Hebron returning to his family's home... She was buried on the road to Efrat -- now Bethlehem....
Ya'acov buried Rachel at this spot, rather than a the family burial plot at the Cave [Tomb] of the Patriarchs in Hebron, because he foresaw that his decedents would pass this site during the the forced exile to Babylon in the year 423 BCE [Source: RachelsTomb.org]

Why the IDF places security personnel there, day after day, was brought home again today:  

Female terrorist arrested near Bethlehem | A female Arab terrorist aged 18, a resident of Bethlehem, arrived Thursday morning at the Rachel Crossing near the city, and threatened to attack policemen and soldiers stationed there. Border Police officers subdued the terrorist and found a knife in her bag. She was arrested and taken for questioning... [Israel National News, today]

The Jordanian version raises doubts:

Palestinian girl arrested for alleged stabbing attempt | Ramallah, March. 1 (Petra) -- Israeli occupation forces arrested an 18-year old Palestinian girl for allegedly trying to stab Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint north of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Radio Israel said on Thursday. The radio said that Israeli troops at the military checkpoint arrested a girl, whose identity wasn't disclosed, for allegedly attempting to attack Israeli soldiers with a knife. [Jordan News Agency/MENAFN, today]

Family and friends outside Rachel's Tomb in 1991 when access was
directly from the Jerusalem/Bethlehem road. The massive
security walls hadn't been constructed and weren't needed

The scurrilous Ma'an/Palestinian Arab version is even more doubtful - but it's their standard pose:

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained an 18-year-old Palestinian girl for allegedly attempting to stab soldiers at Checkpoint 300 in northern Bethlehem city on Thursday, in the southern occupied West Bank. Israeli media reported that soldiers at the checkpoint detained a Palestinian teenage girl who was “carrying a knife and attempted to attack soldiers.” The girl was reportedly taken in for questioning. Though her identity remained unknown, the girl was reported to be a resident of Bethlehem city. Israeli forces have detained scores of Palestinians, many of the minors, for allegedly being in possession of knives following a spate of alleged and actual small-scale knife attacks by Palestinians that surged in the fall of 2015. [Ma'an News Agency, today]

Depending on decisions to be taken by the IDF and the military prosecution, this young woman may qualify under the PA's Rewards for Terror scheme with monetary benefits flowing to her and her parents, so there's that.

10-Feb-18: Two more Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attacks thwarted; both perpetrators are just 15

Totally unrelated to today's report, this product of the UN-operated
UNRWA school system has learned valuable skills involving household
tools which many of his age-mates have applied - under the influence
of inspiration from multiple levels of their society - to their daily lives 

Just yesterday, we posted ["09-Feb-18: At the Tomb of Patriarchs, yet another thwarted Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack"] about what we called the sixth thwarted attack in and around the ancient and sacred Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron during the past two months.

Today there's yet another. Times of Israel reported around 4:00 pm this afternoon:

For the second day in a row, Border Police arrested a Palestinian suspect in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, after finding a knife hidden under his clothes at the entrance to the Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site. After the 15-year-old boy set off the metal detector at a checkpoint outside the holy site, officers cocked their weapons at him and asked him to slowly raise his shirt. Upon recognizing the knife underneath, security forces detained the teen and took him in for additional questioning... ["Palestinian stopped outside Hebron holy site with knife", Jacob Magid in Times of Israel, February 10, 2018]

Times of Israel reports that in a separate thwarted attack yesterday (Friday), Israeli security forces arrested another armed Palestinian teenager at the entrance to the West Bank community of Hashmona'im, located just off Route 443 and a short stroll away from the city of Modi'in.

The 15 year-old from Bil'in had this knife on his body when arrested
at the entrance to Hashmona'im on Friday

Service personnel from the Border Guard (Mishmar Hagvul) police were alerted and ordered the suspect to stop. He ignored their command and was soon overpowered, arrested, searched and taken into custody. The would-be attacker, a resident of nearby Bil'in, was found to be armed with a knife. No one was injured though it's apparent to any intelligent observer that this, like today's attack, could easily have ended very differently.

With its easy access - located near major highways and half-way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Bi'in is host to an ongoing media-focused cottage industry of holding weekly "protests" to which members of the reporting industry have made their way on Friiday's throughout the past thirteen years [see Al Jazeera for background]

The underlying story, which is egregiously ignored by the mainstream media, is the way fifteen year-old Palestinian Arab children are front-line troops on behalf of the Palestinian Arab cause, having undergone a relentless and ongoing process of weaponization in their schools, social media and mosques.

09-Feb-18: At the Tomb of Patriarchs, yet another thwarted Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack

Video capture [Source: YouTube] shows the checkpoint where the
alertness and cool-heads of the personnel prevented an awful outcome

It's a gorgeous early-Spring day here but the miserable problems of living side-by-side with significant numbers of violent and extremist neighbors are still with us.

Around noon today (Friday) for at least the sixth time in two months, another Palestinian Arab armed with a knife was apprehended by service personnel of the Border guard police as he attempted to enter the sacred Tomb of the Patriarchs complex with a concealed knife - in his case, a kitchen knife tucked into one of his socks.

According to Israel National News, the security people at the checkpoint

noticed that the 23-year-old Arab arriving at the site was behaving oddly, and asked him to walk through a metal detector. After the metal detector beeped a few times, the officers found a large kitchen knife hidden in one of the Arab's socks. Following an initial investigation, Border Police estimate that the Arab planned to carry out a stabbing attack at the Cave of the Patriarchs. The suspect has been taken for questioning.

Via Hebrew-language social media, it's noted that the thwarted attacker is a resident of Hebron.

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"

31-Jan-18: In Negohot, another thwarted Arab-on-Israeli attack today and military garb is involved again

Negohot [Image Source: Getty]

An attack that sounds worryingly similar to the one we reported this past Sunday ["28-Jan-18: In Itamar tonight, two uniformed infiltrators are thwarted"] was detected and stopped by alert Israeli security this afternoon (Wednesday). Today's happened at the Negohot community. With a population of about 300, it's in the Southern Hebron Hills area of Judea, part of the West Bank in Area C and therefore under full Israeli control.

Times of Israel says a Palestinian Arab male was arrested there earlier this afternoon

holding a knife and a map of the Israeli community, security forces said... “Soldiers apprehended a Palestinian suspect wearing a military-style jacket near the community,” the army said, adding that a knife and a map of the settlement were found in the suspect’s possession. “The suspect and the found items were transferred to [the] security forces,” the statement said.

The incident, which was reported around 1:30 pm, comes three days after a pair of Palestinians wearing army uniforms tried to infiltrate the settlement of Itamar in the northern West Bank. When arrested, one had a pair of binoculars but no weapons; the second one fled and has not been found yet.

We noted a while back [here] that Negahot has the dubious distinction of currently being one of Israel's four most-vulnerable communities. A report around that time [here] said the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset - whose work covers the foreign affairs of the state, its armed forces and its security - was told that the IDF Homefront Command considers four Yehuda and Shomron communities to be under especially significant security threat. They are Elon Moreh, Otniel, Karmei Tzur and Negahot. The IDF urged the government to enhance the defenses of those places immediately. That evidently paid off this afternoon.

Many may remember the shocking murders [background here] that brought Negohot into the headlines fourteen years ago on Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashana) night, September 25, 2003. A Palestinian Arab attacker in the service of Palestinian Islamic Jihad - a resident of Dura, a nearby Palestinian Arab settlement - managed to get into the community armed with an M-16 rifle and two hand grenades. He knocked on the door of a home in the community as the family and their guests were seated at their holiday dinner. One of the guests, Eyal Yeverbaum, answered and was immediately shot to death. The gunman then fired on baby of seven months, Shaked Avraham, and killed her.

23-Jan-18: Arab-on-Israeli stabbing attack at Tapuah Junction

Uploaded to social media from the scene of
the thwarted attack [Image Source]

There are initial reports via the Hebrew-language social media that there has been an Arab-on-Israeli stabbing in the past few minutes (it's now 1:25 pm Tuesday) at Tapuah Junction. The location has been the scene of many previous violent acts of terror (click "Tapuah" to see our previous posts).

The first indications are that two attackers were involved, and that they were stopped - by means of either IDF or Israeli security personnel gunfire to the lower parts of their bodies - from inflicting injuries on their intended victims. Both are alive and in custody.

An initial bulletin via Ynet says:

They were neutralized by Border Policemen who were on the scene. One was shot and wounded, the other was overpowered and apprehended without the use of fire.

The attackers meant to cause serious harm to Israelis (any Israelis - everyone knows how terror works) and failed. To those who stopped them, well done!

More details when we get them.

23-Jan-18: A would-be-stabber, a knife, an ancient and sacred religious site... again

Our previous post went up Sunday ["21-Jan-18: Friday's terror and the lens of history"] and reports on three Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks from Friday, one of which was directed at the ancient and sacred Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron.

Well, this morning we have another at that same site. From Times of Israel last night (Monday):

Palestinian man caught trying to enter Hebron holy site with knife
Jacob Magid | 22 January 2018, 9:05 pm  0
Border Police arrested a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday, after finding a knife hidden under his clothes at the entrance to the Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site. Officers asked the man, in his 30s, to walk through a metal detector upon his arrival at the checkpoint. While the device did not sound an alarm, the statement from Border Police said the security forces still suspected the Palestinian and conducted a full body search. “An initial investigation revealed that the suspect was apparently intending to carry out a stabbing attack,” Border Police said. The Palestinian, said to be from the nearby village of Dura, was detained and transferred for questioning. “Beyond the technological means at the disposal of the soldiers in their missions, there is no substitute for the professionalism and alertness of the fighters, who once again managed to prevent an attack and thereby save lives,” the Border Police statement concluded. The Tomb of the Patriarchs is a frequent target for stabbing attacks.

Dura is a town of some 30,000 Arabs, located roughly 10 km south of Hevron. It has gotten mentioned in many of our blog reports of terror attacks.

21-Jan-18: Friday's terror and the lens of history

The security checkpoint, one of several in the vicinity of the ancient Tomb
of the Patriarchs, where the woman and her two knives were
intercepted on Friday [Image Source]

We happen to live in a land richer in history than almost anywhere else on earth. The fact that we share much of it with people whose beliefs bring some of them to self-destructive acts of violence against us is one of the tragic aspects of that specialness and causes a large measure of that history to have heavily violent overlays.

This past Friday gave us three reminders. Two have strong scriptural resonances.

Regular readers will be aware of how often the ancient Tomb of the Patriarchs (Hebrew: Ma'arat Hamachpelah, in recognition of its name according to Bereishit/Genesis 23, when our patriarch Avraham purchased it for full value, 400 pieces of silver) in Hebron has been a target for armed, terror-minded Palestinian Arabs with mayhem on their minds.

You can see some of our earlier reports of attacks in that sacred place, most of them thwarted, by clicking on the index term Tomb of the Prophets. There was yet another this past Friday afternoon. Israel National News reports that the would-be attacker was, once again,

a Palestinian Arab woman who was armed with two knives... The Border Police officers asked the woman to undergo a security inspection when she tried to escape the checkpoint. The officers arrested her and asked her to reveal the items she had been carrying. The suspect, who took out a knife, was asked by one of the officers to empty her bag, and when she did, another knife fell to the floor. The Border Police said that the circumstances of the incident and the knives found in the woman’s possession indicate that she was planning to carry out a stabbing attack. The suspect, a resident of Idna in her 30s, was transferred for further interrogation by the security forces.

The Palestinian Arab news company, Ma'an News Agency, says this about the thwarted attack:

Wafa [an arm of the Palestinian Authority] reported that a Palestinian woman was detained by Israeli forces for alleged possession of a knife. According to Wafa, the 32-year-old woman was detained after she was searched at the entrance of the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron’s old city... Israeli forces have detained scores of Palestinians, many of the minors, for allegedly being in possession of knives following a spate of alleged and actual small-scale knife attacks by Palestinians that surged in the fall of 2015... Eyewitnesses have also said in a number of cases that Israeli security forces planted knives on slain or imprisoned Palestinians to claim that they were acting in self-defense during a stabbing attack.

What's the attraction of the Tomb of the Patriarchs? First, it's considered the most ancient, continuously-used prayer structure in the world, though the building resting on top of it - a mosque which had been converted from a large rectangular Herodian-era Judean structure, in Wikipedia's words - is relatively new, only about 850 years. It's also the place where, continuously for nearly 4,000 years, Jews have revered the burial sites of  three patriarchal couples: Avraham and Sarah, Yitzhak and Rivka, Ya'akov and Leah.

Times of Israel reports on another attack - this one not thwarted - earlier the same day. An IDF service member was injured

in an attempted car-ramming attack in the Jordan Valley. The incident took place near the entrance to the Qasr al-Yahud baptismal holy site near Jericho. The vehicle did not have the necessary permit to enter the site and did not stop when soldiers flagged it down, an army spokeswoman said. Security forces detained the driver for questioning and the lightly injured soldier was treated at the scene of the incident.

The attack was caught by an Israeli security camera:

Video source (There's a zoom-in video view of the same attack here)

Qasr al-Yahud is an Arabic name. It means Castle of the Jews and is believed to have that name because, in a less-politically-fraught era, the Arabs acknowledged that the site, a short walk from the Jordan River, is where according to tradition Joshua led the Children of Israel in the final stage of their forty-year-long journey from bondage in Egypt to freedom, autonomy and dominion in the Land of Israel. Right afterwards, they conquered (still) nearby Jericho.

The website of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority refers to its significance to another religion:

Christian tradition marks this site as the place of the “spiritual birth” of Jesus, as opposed to his physical birth in Bethlehem. As such, the baptismal site is of great sacred significance - the third holiest site in the Christian world (after the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem).

For Friday's vehicle-rammer, religious faith may well have played a role. But its details are not likely to be explained on any tourist site.

Also on Friday, according to Ma'an, forces of the IDF arrested four Palestinian Arabs in pre-dawn raids in al-Yamoun, a village north of Jenin:

The detainees were identified as brothers Jihad and Abd al-Qader Freihat. Israeli forces confiscated mobile phones and surveillance camera recordings from their house during the raid. Two other residents of al-Yamoun, identified as Yahiya Abu al-Haija and Mustafa al-Karam. The two were detained during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp... A Palestinian from the Wadi Burqin neighborhood of Jenin, just outside the Jenin refugee camp, was killed during a predawn raid on Thursday. The slain Palestinian, Ahmad Ismail, 30, was killed during an alleged shootout, as Israeli forces were conducting raids in search of Palestinians allegedly suspected to be involved in the shooting of an Israeli settler last week near Nablus.

WAFA says today that IDF raids in the same general area have continued into today (Sunday). Both those Palestinian Arab media channels are evidently too delicate to connect the arrests and raids with a specific act of murder. But it's clear they mean the cold-blooded killing of Rabbi Raziel Shevach HY"D from Havat Gilad ["10-Jan-18: Hamas praises a murderous drive-by shooting that orphans six young Israeli children"] nearly two weeks ago in the area of Nablus, or Shechem as we knew it in Hebrew.

It's where, according to the Torah,the Alm-ghty appeared to Avraham and first promised that “To your offspring I will give this land”, a promise that has been integral to the traditions of Jewish history ever since.

20-Dec-17: The Tomb of the Patriarchs: Another would-be stabber is intercepted in time

Image Source: Haaretz

A Palestinian Arab armed with a knife was stopped today (Wednesday afternoon) around 4:00 pm at one of the security checkpoints that surround the ancient and sacred Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. He was promptly arrested.

The would-be stabber from the Arab town of Dahariya, 23 kilometers south of Hebron, aroused the suspicions of the Border Guard officers stationed at the checkpoint. They demanded he submit to a metal detector examination. It found a metal object hidden on his body.

The suspect then mysteriously declined a request by the officers to empty his pockets after the metal detector found what it found, and preferred instead to pull out and brandish the knife. The Border Guard men brought their powers of persuasion into play and convinced the Palestinian Arab man - by means of their quickly-raised weapons and well-focused words - to surrender before he was able to stab anyone.

The men with the guns could have killed him on the spot but chose instead to take him custody. No one was injured.

Under preliminary questioning, according to Israel National News, the gentleman under arrest agreed with his interrogators that he had come with his knife to "to carry out a terrorist attack against the officers".

UNESCO decided by a vote in July that the Tomb of the Patriarchs is a "Palestinian heritage site". Haaretz reported at the time that 12 states on its World Heritage Committee voted for the resolution and three voted against. The vote also recognized the site "as being in danger, meaning that each year UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will convene to discuss" its case.

It would be nice to think the UNESCO concern stemmed from the long line of stabbers and would-be stabbers who have targeted the ancient site for their murderous purposes. But our impression is they have not the slightest interest in Palestinian Arab violence and their influence on sites of cultural significance.

17-Dec-17: Two Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks; both involve bombs

The heavily secured entrance to the Samaria Military Court where this
morning's attack was thwarted [Archive Image Source]

Far from the attention of the army of foreign reporters prowling our country for stories, Israeli alertness has thwarted a couple of especially hair-raising attacks by Palestinian Arab zealots intent on murder at any price, including their own lives. Both incidents involve bombs.

First this morning (Sunday). Times of Israel's account ["Palestinian arrested outside West Bank military court with suspected bomb", today] says a Palestinian Arab, still unidentified at this early stage, tried to make his way into one of Israel's military courts while wearing some prohibited underwear. 

He was stopped by on-duty Border Guard officers on arriving at the entrance to the Samaria Military Court (we think the one in Salim, in Israel's Jezreel Valley) with what appears - no one is certain yet - a bomb strapped to his body. It's a gorgeous early winter day, not cold, very sunny, and he was wearing an overcoat. One of the police required him to remove the coat, and the murderous thing concealed inside it it became evident.

Sappers are working to defuse the suspected explosive device as we write this. The court's entrance is now closed.

Notwithstanding those vague media reports appearing from time to time that Palestinian Arab terrorists have discontinued their fixation with body-mounted bombs and other forms of murderous self-immolation, a social media commentator posted this morning (in Hebrew) that there have been at least two very similar previous attacks by bombers this year, one on May 24 and one of October 15 (reported here), at the very same location.

Two days ago (Friday), a Palestinian Arab in another attack involving the Border Guard part of Israel's police, this time in the Arab town of Al-Bireh (population around 40,000), ran full-pelt towards the Israelis while brandishing a knife. As well armed as the police undoubtedly were, they held off doing the obvious - firing at the man with the very clear intentions - until he was upon them. He managed to stab one of the Israeli Border Guard men in the upper part of his body. 

Image Source: NYPost/AFP

He was wearing what the media are calling "a suicide vest". It's not clear whether the "suicide" device involved actual explosives or the mere appearance of them. Colleagues of the stabbed police officer, fearing he would explode and caused still more injuries, shot him. (It's captured on a graphic piece of video here.) He is now dead.

The Palestinian Authority health ministry, often the source for details about terrorists and their injuries, says the deceased attacker is named Mohammed Aqal, 29. 

As the AFP photo above makes plain, whether or not the knife-man had a working bomb under his jacket, he plainly wanted people to think he did. He also, it appears, wanted to seem to be a reporter according to this stunning article ["Police: Palestinian who stabbed border guard pretended to be a journalist", Times of Israel, today]

His injured victim is now in Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center where the official report issued this morning (Sunday) is, according to Ynet, that his condition is thankfully improving and he is now said to be in moderate condition.

12-Dec-17: Thwarted knifing attack near Ariel [UPDATED]

According to a Times of Israel report, IDF soldiers broke up a riotous crowd near the Arab village of Salfit, located south of the Israeli city Ariel earlier today. The Arabs were hurling rocks at the Israelis who eventually gave chase and caught one of them at the edge of Salfit. He is said to have drawn a knife on them, prompting them to open fire, according to a Hadashot TV report. The would-be stabber was hit in the head and is being treated in hospital for his injuries.

UPDATE 6:00 pm December 12, 2017 The narrative has just gotten considerably cloudier and more troubling. In an updated report, "Palestinian shot by soldiers wasn’t carrying a knife, IDF finds", Times of Israel says

The army on Tuesday launched an investigation after soldiers shot a Palestinian who they said appeared to pull a knife out of his pocket, though no such weapon was recovered at the scene. In a statement, the IDF said troops spotted a group of Palestinians approaching the fence around the Ariel settlement “in a suspicious manner.” The soldiers opened fire at one of the suspects after he “appeared to pull a knife out of his pocket,” the army said. However, upon searching the area, near the Palestinian village of Salfit, the military found no knife, indicating the soldiers apparently opened fire in error. Israeli army medics treated the wounded Palestinian on the scene, before taking him to the hospital.“The incident will be reviewed,” the army said. The army’s statement, released Tuesday evening, conflicted with earlier reports from the afternoon, which claimed the injured Palestinian had been throwing rocks at soldiers and when confronted by them, took out a knife and tried to stab them.

Ynet adds this:

Several Palestinians suspected of trying to tamper with the security force near Ariel advanced on an IDF force. One of them inserted his hand into his pocket in a manner that resembled drawing a knife. In response, the IDF force shot and struck him.

Mistakes on the battlefield and under conditions of stress, and even tragic mishaps - they're not new and in large measure they're inevitable. We're confident the IDF's investigators and legal teams will approach this in a professional, ethical way.

11-Dec-17: Sunday's Jerusalem stabbing victim: Updated (again)

The victim of the terrorist knifing attack, Asher Elmaliach

The Sunday knifing attack on a private security guard at the busy entrance to Jerusalem's Central Bus Station ["10-Dec-17: A stabbing attack on a security guard shuts down Jerusalem's main bus station"] appears to have made little impact on global news channels.

Even less attention, in the nature of things, is being paid to how the victim is doing. That's inexcusable.

Here's an update from this morning (Monday):

The condition of the security guard stabbed in the chest by a Palestinian terrorist at the entrance to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station Sunday has stabilized, doctors at Shaare Zedek Medical Center said Monday morning. Asher Elmaliach, 46, sustained serious injuries when he was stabbed in the heart Sunday afternoon. He showed early signs of awakening, but remains unconscious and connected to a respirator in the intensive care unit, a hospital spokesperson said. [Times of Israel, December 11, 2017]

For people who pray, please keep Asher Ben Tamar in your thoughts. Thank you.

UPDATE Sunday December 17, 2017
Ynet reports this morning: "The Shaare Zedek Medical Center said the condition of the security guard who was stabbed in the central bus station terrorist attack last week continues to be very serious." Even if we're not medical people, it's in our power to help. For people who pray, please keep Asher Ben Tamar in your thoughts. Thank you.

10-Dec-17: A stabbing attack on a security guard shuts down Jerusalem's main bus station

The alleged attacker is pinned down by police
and security in an image from social media

A knifing attack reported a little after 2:15 pm this afternoon (Sunday) has left a security guard badly injured and undergoing treatment at Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center. Israel National News gives his age as about 25.

The attacker was stopped by means that are not yet clear but is reported to be alive. One source [here] describes him as a Palestinian Arab male of 24. Photos of his knife, dripping with blood, are circulating in the social media.

Times of Israel says the victim was unconscious by the time he reached the emergency room. It adds:

According to police, the suspected terrorist is a 24-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank. His name was not released. It was not immediately clear how he entered Israel, specifically if he had a work permit or if he had done so illegally. After he was subdued, the suspect was stripped to ensure he did not have a suicide vest or other weapon hidden under his clothes.

The Central Bus Station area, near the main entry point to Jerusalem and always congested during the afternoon peak hour, is now affected by police barriers and shut-downs.

Associated Press quotes Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld saying the guard was seriously wounded Sunday and his attacker arrested. The Magen David Adom medical service says a 30-year-old male suffered a stabbing wound in his upper body:

The incident appeared to be the first attack since President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The announcement set off protests and demonstration across the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, and demonstrations around the world.

But let's be clear. Terrorism isn't a protest. Or a demonstration.

UPDATE 6:30 pm December 10, 2017: Times of Israel says the victim, an employee of a private security firm, is older than originally reported:

"Medics from the Magen David Adom ambulance service said they tried to stop the bleeding and applied bandages during the five-minute ambulance ride to the hospital. The victim, 46, was taken to the capital’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment where doctors were battling to stabilize his condition and save his life, said Dr. Ofer Merrin, the head of trauma center. “The knife, unfortunately, hit his heart. His condition has stabilized, but I cannot say that there’s not threat to his life because, like I said, he’s in serious condition,” the doctor said, adding that he was unconscious and connected to a respirator."

We don't have his name yet.

UPDATE 7:40 pm December 10, 2017: We're told the name (for prayer purposes - in Jewish tradition, the name of the mother is invoked) of the critically injured security guard is Asher ben Tamar. He could use everyone's prayers. The knifer, according to Israel National News, is a 24-year-old Palestinian Arab from Nablus (in Hebrew: Shechem), who goes by the name Yassin Abu Al-Keraa. [Others write it Yasin Abu al-Qur’a or al-Qar’a] He is being treated for his injuries. A Facebook post he uploaded today is translated as  “For Allah’s sake we rose up, we wish to raise the banner…to let our religion [Islam] exult once again, and to make the Al Aqsa Mosque [on the Temple Mount] once again be resplendent... Please let our blood be spilled – for it is of little matter to spill one’s blood for our homeland, for Jerusalem, and for the Al Aqsa Mosque.”

UPDATE 5:00 pm January 14, 2018
With deep thanks to the A-mighty, we can report that the security guard who was stabbed in the heart during a terror attack at Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station on December 10, 2017, was released today (Sunday) from Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center. Doctors say the condition of Asher Elmaliach, 46, is very good. He was transferred today to a rehabilitation program where efforts will continue to be made to help him regain his physical strength. Times of Israel says Elmaliach spent weeks on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, or ECMO. This is designed to take the strain off the heart and lungs by undertaking some of their functions, removing carbon dioxide from the blood and resupplying it with oxygen. The attacker (we named him above) from Wadi al-Fara, near Nablus, was charged on December 28, 2017 with carrying out “a terrorist act of attempted murder” and with entering Israel illegally. The charge sheet says that on the morning of the vicious attack, al-Qar’a “said goodbye to his loved ones on the phone”, bought a knife and illegally traveled to Israel in order to carry out an act of terror. Having been told of Trump’s announcement to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, “the defendant planned to stab as many Jews as possible until he was killed and turned into a martyr,” the indictment reads. He first went to Hadera, taking advantage of an Israeli government permit that allowed him to enter the “seam zone” of the West Bank though but not Israel within the Green Line. Fearing he would be discovered if he traveled on a public bus, he took a NIS 500 ($140) cab ride from Hadera to Jerusalem. During the ride, he composed his last will and testament "based on what he’d been taught in Palestinian Authority schools", according to the indictment. At Jerusalem's Central Bus Station, he was stopped at the door by Elmaliach who asked him to pass through a metal detector before entering. The knife hidden in his coat was then detected at which point the attacker, realizing Elmaliach was Jewish, “decided to stab him to death”. He nearly succeeded.

27-Nov-17: Children, knives, sacred places

The alleged knifer is taken into custody this morning [Image Source: Screen grab
from a social media video]

Knives, youths and holy sites; they're a dangerous combination. We have reported here many times on would-be attackers and thwarted attacks, and there's another today from the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron.

Here's what Times of Israel reported:

Border guards arrested a Palestinian teenager on Monday morning, as he tried to dodge security at a checkpoint leading to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, police said. Suspicious officers asked him to lift his shirt and saw that he was carrying a knife in his pants, police said in a statement that noted the suspect was about 16 years old. A very similar incident took place Sunday afternoon, when police arrested a 17-year-old boy at the same place, trying to do the same thing. In both cases, the youths were attempting to get through to the site, holy to both Jews and Muslims, with a concealed blade... ["Palestinian teen arrested in Hebron with a knife", Times of Israel, November 27, 2017]

Today's thwarted attack happened around 8 this morning, according to this report from Hebrew social media.

They're legally classified as children but their plain intentions and likely ability to kill or seriously injure are clear and obvious.

It seems like just a few weeks that we were writing about essentially the same issues. In fact it was - see "08-Nov-17: Violent non-violence on the road to peace".