18-Aug-20: An Arab-on-Israeli knifing in Jerusalem's Old City and a dead assailant

Screen cap from the Israel Police video report [here]

The general sense of fury being projected by a wounded and failed Palestinian Authority leadership in the wake of Israel's suddenly open 'normalized' relationship with the United Arab Emirates received its depressingly predictable expression last night.

Here in Jerusalem, near Lion's Gate (שער האריות) in the Old City at around 8:40 pm Monday night, shortly before Muslim evening prayers and close to the Bab Huta entrance (one of several) to the Temple Mount, an attacker wearing a protective face mask launched an explosive knifing attack. His victim was a 19 year old armed Israeli security officer who came out of it with moderate injuries but alive and recovering.

The attacker was almost immediately shot by security personnel and died of his injuries. Palestinian Arab news reports like this one predictably say the young Arrab was 'executed'.

The security camera video [here] makes plain the usual procedure: young Arab male, walking along one of the Old City paths, lunges without warning towards a security forces member standing guard to protect the peace, whips a knife out of his clothing. Thrusts a hand holding the weapon towards the upper body of the Israel, causing what undoubtedly would be the first of several lethal wounds if no one stops him. But he is stopped by the shots of another alert Israel Border Guard officer and falls to the ground.

Arabic-language news reports (like this one from the official Palestinian Press Agency, archived here) say (translated from the Arabic original) "the Israeli occupation forces executed a Palestinian youth", that "the martyr... is from the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem" and "he is 30 years old".

The murderous assault comes against the background of what a Times of Israel report calls "a general lull in terror activity in the capital, which had not seen a stabbing attack in nearly three months".

The teenage border guard, presumably in the midst of his compulsory national service, was taken to hospital (Yediot Aharonot says Shaarei Zedek; Times of Israel reports Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center) for emergency treatment. Initial first aid was given at the site by Magen David Adom medics. The hospital reports that he sustained stab wounds to the chest and is "stable and fully conscious”.

Haaretz quotes Israel Police announcing that the Temple Mount gates were closed immediately after the knifing. Social media reports (like this) say that in the Shuafat neighborhood of north Jerusalem there were clashes in the hours that followed between Israel Police and locals.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

06-Apr-17: An Arab-on-Israeli vehicle ramming attack north of Jerusalem this morning

At the scene, near Ofra, this morning
[Image Source]

There has been another Arab-on-Israeli vehicle-ramming attack this morning (Thursday). Two young Israelis, standing on a sidewalk on Route 60, a major north-south highway, at Ofra Junction near Ramallah were struck when a driver steered his car deliberately into them with considerable force in what the IDF, quoted by Times of Israel, is identifying as a terror attack.

From the Magen David Adom ambulance service, it's reported that both Israelis are injured, one critically. The BBC says

Witnesses told Israeli media that the car approached a bus stop at the Ofra junction, on the Route 60 highway north-east of Ramallah, and then accelerated towards the two Israelis waiting there. In late 2015 and 2016, such attacks by Palestinians or Israeli Arabs happened with near-daily frequency but the rate has dropped in recent months. [BBC News, today]

The driver of the vehicle was “neutralized” on the spot according to the ambulance officials. Social media sources (in Hebrew) suggest the attacker was injured, not killed, inside his car.

The injuries to at least one of the victims sound very serious. The site of the attack looks (in the photo on the right) to be a bus stop.

Ofra, an Israeli community located some 8 kilometers south of biblical-and-modern Shiloh, was re-established in 1975 on the ruins of a Jordanian army base which had occupied the area since the war of 1948. Today it is home to about 4,000 Israelis.

UPDATE Thursday April 6, 2017 at 10:40 am: It's reported, tragically, that one of the two young Israeli victims has died of his injuries. The other is currently getting emergency treatment at Hadassah Mt Scopus hospital. The Arab driver, not dead though probably shot, is in the hands of the IDF. The Palestinian Arab mouthpiece, Ma'an News Agency, in its English-language news report calls the attack "alleged" as it usually does. Ma'an's Arabic language edition is less coy (as it usually is), quoting Hamas sources who have congratulated the attacker for his "achievement".

UPDATE Thursday April 6, 2017 at 1:45 pm: Times of Israel, quoting the IDF, says the young man murdered by the attack-driver this morning is Elhai Tahar-Lev, 20, from Talmon, may his memory be for a blessing. His father is a prominent and highly regarded rabbi in the Tzohar and Midreshet Lindenbaum communities. May the A-mighty help them deal with the difficult grieving ahead.

01-Jul-16: An Israeli family, driving to their Sabbath destination, are the latest victims

From Times of Israel in the past few minutes (it's now 3:45 pm):

An Israeli man was killed Friday afternoon and a woman was seriously hurt when their family’s car came under gunfire from a passing vehicle. Their baby in the vehicle was lightly injured in the attack, near the West Bank city of Hebron. The car flipped over due to the attack close to Adurim Junction on Route 60. Two other people sustained light-to-moderate injuries, rescue personnel said. The dead man was in his 30s, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service. The 40-year-old woman was hit by gunfire and suffered from a head wound, the MDA said. It appeared as though the four victims were a family, the Walla news site reported... Security forces were searching the area for the perpetrators, the army said in a statement.

At Israel National News, they add that the injured woman was rushed to to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in serious condition, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the upper body, and was placed immediately on a respirator. The two other casualties from the drive-by shooting attack at Adorayim Junction are moderately and lightly wounded:

According to initial reports, terrorists opened fire on two Israeli civilian vehicles, striking both and causing one to overturn. IDF forces responded quickly and are currently pursuing the terrorists who carried out the attack.

Developing.

3-Aug-06: The Dinkum Article

In a ceremony in Tel-Aviv on Tuesday, Australia announced it is contributing $350,000 in aid to Magen David Adom, Israel's civil ambulance service. Tim George, ambassador of Australia to Israel, said that his country wished to support the operations of Israeli rescue teams ''who work night and day to bring first aid to the victims of the Katiyusha rockets''.

Supporting MDA is a vote for sanity and a non-political reminder that people - human beings - are at the centre of the awful events inflicted by Iran and its Hezbollah savages on Lebanese, Israelis and Palestinian Arabs. And a reminder that what's going on in northern Israel is a very serious matter.

Now why doesn't every government have the good sense that Australia does and follow its fine example?

7-Jul-06: Despite all - more missile terror

The repetition of the reports of Qassams being fired into Israeli communities makes for boring reading - and for a nightmarish kind of day-to-day life for those who have to endure them.

Though the Israeli military is in a position today where it can blast the living daylights out of any portion of Gaza it chooses, the terrorists who operate from there see logic in continuing to fire their missiles into any Israeli town within range and invite response. It would be superficial and misleading to say these people are determined. More accurate to say their hatred is relentless and their moral compass permanently out of action.

Yediot describes today, Friday, as being a day of panic in the Israeli communities close to Gaza. Since early this morning, six missiles have been fired into the area from Gaza. The shrieking Red Dawn alert system is in a state of constant activation, causing nerves to be even more frayed. One missile hits an agricultural produce factory near the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council offices. The factory is damaged and one of the employees is lightly wounded. Another missile lands on the grounds of the Kibbutz Saad agricultural community (see picture). Four more crash into the town of Sderot. Yediot's report provides these additional human-scale details:

Three residents were hurt by the rockets' shrapnel. They were treated by a Magen David Adom emergency team and were evacuated to the Barzilay Medical Center in Ashkelon. The rockets were seen by the town's spokesman Yossi Pinchas Cohen, who is usually in charge of reporting about the rocket fire. This time he was forced to deal with a threat on his private home. "The rocket landed right next to my house, at a basketball field near the new community center," the spokesman said. "There was great fear in my house, the children began crying and everyone panicked. Lots of people also gathered outside, and there is a great commotion here in the city." Panic erupted in almost all the Qassam falling sites and many residents gathered in the area, protesting the ongoing fire since Thursday evening. One rocket fell next to a bus station. "The Qassam hit right next to the station, and half a minute later a bus arrived there to collect passengers," an eyewitness said. "If it had been one minute earlier, it would have been hit and it would have definitely been a great disaster."

26-Jun-06: "We know what to do..."

It's been a day of clenched-teeth speeches: the Israeli prime minister and a host of senior military figures, reacting to yesterday's tunnel-borne attack on an Israeli miitary post on sovereign Israeli territory say - literally in some cases, figuratively in others - we know what we have to do, we're doing it (or we're going to do it real soon); and the bad people had better watch out.

Meanwhile, irrespective of whether Israel really is about to unrestrain itself, here's some of what the bad people have been doing this afternoon and this evening:

• A Palestinian terror group says it kidnapped an Israeli tonight, this time somewhere in the vicinity of Nablus. If true (and no one on the Israeli side is confirming it at this stage) it would be the second kidnapping of an Israeli by a Palestinian terror group in as many days. For what it's worth, the gang claiming victory this time, according to Yediot Aharonot, is the Popular Resistance Committee.
• The PRC says it plans to keep on kidnapping. And why not? Activities of that kind enhance the appeal of their 'resistance' struggle in certain quarters. They establish beyond doubt the fitness of their compatriots to have a state and to manage it, and affirm the depths of their 'desperation' as well as their membership in the ranks of the world's liberation movements. Of course, there is a different way of looking at this: there's neither morality nor politics in their hideous hatred - they're little more than thugs for whom anything that hurts the other side must, by definition, be good.
• At around 10 tonight, there are reports of a terrorist infiltration in the area of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, an Israeli community close to the northern end of the Gaza border.
• Qassam missiles have been fired repeatedly this evening from Gaza into several Israeli communities.
• There's a report of a civilian injured by one such Qassam missile landing in battered Sderot tonight. The same missile causes a power blackout in Sderot's southern suburbs.
• And a separate report that 4 people are injured in Sderot by shattered glass after another Qassam rocket lands in the area. Magen David Adom paramedics evacuate the injured to Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon. Paramedics also treat two patients with heart conditions. 11 people suffer from shock and are treated at the scene (Ynet).
• There's a heightened state of terror alert in various parts of the country. The police have established an enlarged presence in and around Jerusalem; in the areas close to where undisputed Israel and the Judea and Samaria areas meet; and in crowded public areas; all of this according to Israel Radio tonight. Checkpoints are being set up on an unannounced basis in many locations.
• The Israel Prison Service has its personnel on elevated alert in response to the general state of agitation. The Palestinian 'street' is in a state of excitement now that the kidnappers of Corporal Gilad Shalit have stated their terms - which include the release of all female Palestinian terrorists from Israeli jails. Meanwhile family prison visits are suspended.
• Israeli vehicles are stoned and/or shot tonight at various locations in Judea and Samaria.
• Islamic Jihad says it's developed a new rocket with a longer-range for use against Israeli civilian targets, according to Israel's Channel 1 news tonight. They call it the "Quds 4" and claim a range of 20 kilometers, three times longer than conventional Qassams. Sderot is about an hour's drive from Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem, so longer missile range, if true, really means something in this part of the world.

What's especially irritating to us about all of this escalation and bad language is how certain corners of the foreign media seem unable to withhold their gloating. Their message seems to be: finally, those uppity Israelis are being cut down a notch. The Melbourne Age, which we watch closely for old times' sake, seems especially prone to this.

But we're not persuaded. We would really like someone smart and incisive to explain to us how resurgent, aggressive Palestinian terror actions make things better for anyone. It's always been clear to most Israelis that Israeli military restraint is a policy of choice, not necessity; at any moment, the restraint can be eased and some really serious damage can be done to the fabric of Palestinian Arab life, not to mention the physical health and well-being of individual high-profile Palestinian figures. The enormous ring of Israeli armour deployed tonight at all points around the Gaza border (see the picture above) gives palpable physicality to that aspect of the asymmetry between the two sides.

The irresistable conclusion - at least for us - is that the thugocracy of the Hamas-led PA actually wants more suffering for their people, and sees some kind of long-term benefit in this.

A more demented view of political leadership would be hard to conjure up. These are not uplifting times.