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".

26-Dec-18: Vehicle rammer is stopped by IDF Wednesday afternoon

Image Source: Xinhua

Times of Israel reported yesterday["Attempted West Bank car-ramming attack reported outside Nablus"] on an attempted car-ramming attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians in the northern West Bank. IDF troops opened fire and stopped the attacker, who is now injured, before he could do more damage.

The suspect attempted to run over a group of people waiting at a bus stop at a junction outside Nablus, near a military base, according to the military and the Samaria Regional Council. Soldiers at the scene shot at the assailant, who was taken to hospital in moderate condition. No Israelis were physically hurt in the attempted attack, although the Samaria Regional Council spokesperson said three people — two women and a man — suffered panic attacks and underwent treatment. “He was driving slowly and suddenly sped up toward us,” said eyewitness Emunah Mevorach, 23, who said the car had tried to maneuver between concrete columns placed next to the bus stop to prevent such attacks. “The soldier shot many bullets and we ran behind a concrete block. The soldier’s reaction saved us.”

The Chinese newsagency Xinhua ["Israeli forces foil Palestinian car-ramming attack in West Bank, driver injured"] adopts a straightforward approach to their headline, while Turkey's Anadolu does what most of the Arabic-language press customarily does: irrespective of what their sources tell them, and pretending there is not a years-long obsessive Palestinian Arab campaign to encourage vehicle rammings of Israelis underway - and many dead Israelis as a result - it suggests the attack may or may not have happened, depends whom you ask (but their reporters rarely ask). See "Israeli forces shoot Palestinian in alleged car attack" from the Turks.

From Ma'an's version of the news

The notorious Ma'an News Agency (not surprisingly) headlines its version of the news with this: "Israeli forces shoot, injure Palestinian at Huwwara checkpoint":

The Palestinian Ministry of Civil Affairs confirmed that they were officially informed of the driver's injury, whom they identified as Raed Thiab, 35, from Kafr Qalil village. The ministry added that he was injured with two bullets in the leg. Witnesses told Ma’an that the vehicle was parked dozens of meters away from the Huwwara checkpoint, near a transport stop for Israeli settlers.

The headline of their Arabic-language version is (not surprisingly) less shy and owns up to how the guy wasn't just shot but "was injured allegedly carrying out an attack".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The video is here.

18-Jun-18: Large Hamas-aligned terror-attack-cell is busted in Nablus

Nablus [Image Source]

Uncommonly big by the standards of previous terror gang arrests, the discovery and busting of a highly active Hamas cell, operational since October 2017, was revealed yesterday (Sunday) after being suppressed since April by a court-imposed gag order.

The members of the gang had plans to carry out mass-scale bombings in Israel's major population centers.

Times of Israel reports: 

Israeli forces uncovered a large and highly active Hamas terror cell operating out of the Palestinian city of Nablus earlier this year that was allegedly planning to conduct a number of bombings and shooting attacks in Israel... The arrest of the more than 20 suspected cell members made this one of the largest busts by the Shin Bet in recent years... “In recent months, the Shin Bet, Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police uncovered a Hamas terror cell, extraordinary in its size and level of activity, which operated in the Nablus area... During the suspects’ interrogations by the Shin Bet, it was determined that the cell planned to carry out terrorist bombings in central cities in Israel and the northern West Bank, including a bombing in Tel Aviv, a suicide bombing and an explosive attack in Jerusalem, a bombing in the Itamar settlement and shooting attacks in the Samaria region,” the [Shin Bet] security service said... [It] arrested more than 20 suspected members of the Hamas cell in late April, including its two leaders: Mutassem Muhammad Salem, 35, and Fares Kamil Zebidi, 33. ["Shin Bet: Israel busted large Hamas cell planning Jerusalem, Tel Aviv bombings", Times of Israel, June 17, 2018]

Nablus, called Shechem in Hebrew and mentioned numerous times in Scripture, is about 50 km north of Jerusalem and has a mainly-Moslem population today of about 126,500. It's the second largest Palestinian Arab city in the area they call the West Bank.

Beyond being affiliated with Hamas, the terror cell, via its leader Salem, is thought to have had connections with the Syria-based terrorists Tahrir al-Sham, previously known as the Nusra Front.

The two indictments that were filed in the military court on Sunday are only the first in this bust. Others are expected to be filed in the coming days, with the expectation of more revelations. 

Most Israelis don't need much convincing to know that terrorist desires are deeply implanted and active in the Palestinian Arab communities bordering Israel's centers of population. Outside Israel, as Sunday's revelations show, there is far less awareness: so far at least, the scale of non-Israeli media interest in reporting the Nablus bust has been trivial-to-none.

18-Mar-18: Near Lions Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, an Israeli is stabbed by an Arab attacker

Image Source: Reuters

The Palestinian Arab days of rage continue to exert their hideous influence.

There has been a late-Sunday-afternoon stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City near the ancient and famous Lions Gate. Times of Israel's report says a terrorist attacker stabbed and critically injured an Israeli on Hagai Street in Jerusalem’s Old City Muslim Quarter. He was quickly shot dead at the scene by an Israel Police officer.

The victim is said to be in “very serious” condition with multiple stab wounds to the upper body. He is about 30 years old. He was rushed from the scene of the attack to the trauma center of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment.

What we know about the stabber is that he was 28 years-old and from the village of Aqraba, near Nablus, known in Hebrew as Shechem. His name is given as Abd al-Rahman Bani Fadel. It's a common Arab surname in the Nablus area.

Arab-on-Israeli attacks in the vicinity of Lions Gate are far from unknown. We have reported on these in the past three years (and there may have been more): 13-May-17: In Jerusalem's Old City, a Jordanian stabs an Israeli and the Jordanians are outraged (so are we, for different reasons); 13-Mar-17: Jerusalem and the (alleged) knife-men; 03-Oct-15: Arab violence escalates in Jerusalem: Multiple stabbings in Old City tonight.

The Arab view, as exemplified by this quote from a Naharnet news report, is that "tensions" are high

after Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas called for a day of rage on Friday to commemorate 100 days since U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Yes, tensions. Tell that to the family of the young Israeli fighting for his life this evening.

Image Source

UPDATE Monday morning, March 19, 2018 at 12:15 am: We're sorry to have to report that the Israeli victim of today's stabbing attack has died. Israel National News says he is Adiel Kolman, a resident of Kochav Hashahar, originally from the community of Keshet in the Golan Heights - married and the father of four children.

The Jerusalem Post says

Kolman, 32, a father of four, was killed in a terror attack on Sunday evening as he left his job at the City of David museum in the Old City and headed in the direction of Jerusalem’s light rail. It was a route he took every day to return to his home in the Kokhav HaShahar settlement, just outside of the capital. A terrorist stabbed him in the upper part of his body as he neared the area of the Lion’s Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. He was rushed to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in serious condition and died just before midnight. Kolman grew up in Moshav Keshet in the Golan Heights. He leaves behind children in third and second grade as well as in kindergarten and day care. His wife, Ayelet, is a social worker.

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.

28-Jan-18: In Itamar tonight, two uniformed infiltrators are thwarted

One of tonight's two suspected
infiltrators, healthy and well and
being interrogated [Image Source]

The armed security, cameras and boom gates that are a regular feature of almost every Israeli community in Judea and Samaria are there for pragmatic and fully-justified reasons. Those are on public display this evening as news emerges around 7 Sunday evening of a thwarted terrorist infiltration in Samaria.

According to JPost.com, a Palestinian Arab was arrested this evening outside Itamar

and searches are being carried out for another suspect on suspicion that the two tried to enter the village wearing IDF-style uniforms, according to the Itamar Security Team.

From Times of Israel:

Army foils attempt by 2 Palestinians in IDF uniforms to infiltrate settlementArmy says one of the suspects captured but was apparently not armed, while troops search for the other around Itamar in the northern West Bank
January 28, 2018 | 8:13 pm
A pair of Palestinians dressed in IDF uniforms tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank on Sunday, the army said. One of the suspects, who was detained by IDF troops near Itamar, had a pair of binoculars, but no weapons. Troops were interrogating the suspect who was caught in order to determine whether the pair had been attempting to carry out a terror attack or had criminal motive, Hadashot TV news reported. Soldiers were scouring the area between the settlement and the Palestinian village of Beit Furik for the second suspect, the army said.

Infiltrators dressed in IDF uniforms are a frightening thought. But as the photo above indicates, and with due respect to the news sources that claimed otherwise, it's not at all clear to us that these two Arabs in khaki were wearing IDF uniforms. Whether they had terror on their minds is also still a question though it's obvious their presence inside Itamar was not intended to benefit the local residents. (We're certainly not casting doubt on the need for tonight's intruders to be stopped and apprehended, whatever their agenda.)

Israel National News says the infiltration attempt was done via Itamar's back entrance - and local authorities in the area have instructed residents to stay in their homes for now until the second suspected terrorist is found and taken into custody.

Itamar, an Israeli community located about 5 kilometers south-east of Nablus/Shechem that was first settled in 1984, has a population of about 1,200. Nearly seven years ago, we wrote ["19-Apr-11: What happened that awful Sabbath night in Itamar?"] of the hideous massacre by Palestinian Arab terrorists of five members of the Fogel family, residents of the community. Wikipedia notes that

Itamar and its residents have been targeted several times by Palestinians terrorists in the past, three such incidents taking place between May and July 2002, a fourth in August 2004 and another [the Fogel atrocity] in 2011, which have caused more than a dozen deaths...

UPDATE Monday January 29, 2018 at 10:00 am: The search for the second thwarted intruder continues this morning but there have been some developments. Times of Israel reports:

Soldiers combing the area where two Palestinians apparently tried to sneak into a West Bank settlement found six Molotov cocktails, the army said Monday. The incendiaries were discovered near the settlement of Itamar... near the area where the two Palestinians were spotted, the army said. It said searches were ongoing. The army said Sunday night it was investigating if the Palestinians had planned to attack Israelis. The suspect who was caught had a pair of binoculars, but no weapons, the IDF said.

A Palestinian Arab news source, WAFA, says

"Clashes erupted on Sunday night in Beit Furik, to the east of Nablus, following an Israeli army raid of the village, according to Palestinian security sources... Soldiers raided the village after allegedly arresting a Palestinian believed to be from Beit Furik near the illegal settlement of Itamar. The army claimed the Palestinian was wearing army uniform. Another one got away, said the army."

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.

10-Jan-18: Hamas praises a murderous drive-by shooting that orphans six young Israeli children

Today's funeral in Havat Gilad [Image Source]

Six more Israeli children - Renana, 10; Naomi, 8; Miriam, 6; Malka, 5; Ovadia, 3; and Benayahu, 10 months - all from Havat Gil'ad, have just become orphans in yet another Arab-on-Israeli drive-by shooting murder - the latest to join a tragic history such attacks.

Their father is being buried as we enter this text. (His is the Havat Gilad community's first funeral.) His wife Yael now faces challenges as a young widow that no one should ever know.

Around 8 pm last night (Tuesday), on Route 60, a major highway in the Samaria district of Israel that runs north-south between Beer Sheva and Nazareth via Jerusalem, a shooter armed with a gun opened fire from his moving vehicle in the direction of the car of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a remarkable man of 35:

Rabbi Shevach was a mohel, taught children in the community and also served as a volunteer in the regional health service. He had been a resident of Havat Gilad for 10 years... [Hamodia, January 10, 2018]

Shot in the neck, Rabbi Shevach managed to phone his wife. She raised the alarm and help was dispatched. Times of Israel says

civilian and military medics rushed to the scene and tried to stop the bleeding as they took him to Kfar Saba’s Meir Hospital, where he was pronounced dead after life-saving efforts failed. Immediately following the attack, troops launched a manhunt, setting up roadblocks in the area around the Palestinian city of Nablus as they looked for the perpetrators.

Rabbi Shevach in his Magen David Adom
ambulance brigade uniform [Image Source]

The hunt was aided by ad hoc IDF security checks that were put in place at the entrances to and exits from nearby Nablus and forces manned security crossings across the city, according to the military spokesperson. Israeli special forces joined the search, entering nearby Palestinian Arab villages to seek the attackers.

As of this morning (Wednesday), the army has said it is expanding the search and bringing in reinforcements. Attacks of this kind are often described as the work of lone-wolf operators. Much of the time, a cell of terrorists is revealed and a supply chain and operational command that stretch beyond our borders and into foreign countries. Too soon to eliminate any theories.

A Facebook post on Monday (in Hebrew) reported that a Jewish resident of the nearby Yitzhar community, driving in his car, saw another vehicle pull up next to him. The other driver brandished a pistol but was unable to fire for reasons unknown.

The terrorists of Hamas issued a statement last night (says Times of Israel) praising the attack, calling it “heroic” and warning that it is "a sign of future attacks to come". Another source quotes part of their message calling the murder:

heroic action, that came as a result of Israel’s crimes against our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. 

Hamas stopped short of taking responsibility for the lethal terror attack. This doesn't mean they are uninvolved. And it certainly shouldn't be understood as a specific response to some specific complaint. The Palestinian Arab terrorist forces seek Israeli and Jewish victims always and everywhere, and have done for generations.

UPDATE Tuesday February 6, 2018: A JTA report today ["Israeli forces kill head of terror cell behind Gilad Farm rabbi’s murder"] says that as a result of a joint effort by the Israel Security Agency (the Shin Bet), the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Police,

"Israeli security forces shot and killed the Palestinian terrorist behind the murder of an Israeli father of six. Nearly a month after Rabbi Raziel Shevach was killed in a drive-by attack at the Gilad Farms outpost junction in the northern West Bank, Ahmed Nassar Jarrar, a resident of Jenin, was killed Tuesday morning, the Israel Security Agency said in a statement. Jarrar was the head of the terrorist cell that perpetrated the January 9 shooting and personally participated in the attack, according to the statement.  Jarrar was killed during an attempt to arrest him in the village of Yamoun, near Jenin, where he was hiding. An M-16 rifle and an explosives pack were found with him when he was killed. Other cell members who have been arrested have told investigators that the cell was involved in other attempts to plan and carry out terror attacks. A gag order has been placed on any additional details..."

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.

02-Aug-17: Yet another Arab-on-Israel stabbing attack, this time in Yavneh

In a Shufersal supermarket in the southern Israeli city of Yavneh, a store worker busy with unpacking and placing kitchen paper rolls on the shelf this morning was the target of a Palestinian Arab stabber. A high quality security camera (below) caught most of the horrifying savagery.

תיעוד פיגוע הדקירה ביבנה בעיני מצלמות האבטחה - 2.8.17 from rams on Vimeo.

What we know at this stage about the victim is limited. He is said to be a 43 year old man who suffered severe injuries in the frenzied knifing attack and is fighting for his life in Rehovot's Kaplan Hospital. The injuries, in conformance with the knifing incitement currently in vogue among the Palestinian Arabs, are to the upper part of the victim's body: the chest, the neck and the head.

The attacker, said by Times of Israel to be a 19-year-old Palestinian Arab male from the West Bank city of Nablus (but an Arab source names him as a teenage resident of Yatta), attracts no particular attention in the video. He's shown walking down an aisle where the worker is going about his business with no evident sign of wariness. Then with the worker's back turned to him, the resistance hero with the kitchen knife hurls himself at the victim, inflicting what we now know to be life-threatening injuries.

The attacker was eventually stopped and pinned down by ordinary people in the shop. They held him there [video] till police arrived [video].

There will probably be some rationalizations later in the day - desperate, impoverished, avenging his brother's girlfriend's room-mate - as the young thug with the knife helps the police with their enquiries.

But for those of us beyond the stage of "explanations", it's clear enough that what is depicted in the video is the outcome of a society lusting for blood and engaged in incitement-to-murder around the clock. There are many guilty parties.

UPDATE August 2, 2017 at 4:30 pm: The attacker is identified as Ismail Ibrahim Ismail Abu Aram, 19, from Yatta. We last mentioned that town here in connection with - what a coincidence! - an Arab-on-Israeli knifing attack barely a month ago. See "28-Jun-17: The obscene ordinariness of another woman with a knife at an Israeli checkpoint". And a year before that when a couple of Yattans opened up with machine-gun fire on Israeli customers in the Sarona Market terror attack in Tel Aviv, murdering 4 and injuring 16 others: "09-Jun-16: The Tel Aviv killings: Hamas claims credit but Fatah/PA demands some of the glory too".  And before that too: "24-Dec-15: A thwarted stabbing assault near Hebron". Yatta has about 65,000 residents and is situated on Hebron's southern flank. Some 1,800 years ago, it was entirely Jewish until overrun by settlers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and in the previous week 

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

Developing

23-Apr-17: Tel Aviv tourist precinct: Arab assailant stabs four

The attacker is on the left [Times of Israel video grab]

What's being described as a terror attack began with an assault today (Sunday afternoon, 2:05 pm) inside a Tel Aviv seafront hotel.

At this point, we know of a total of four people injured when a Palestinian Arab male, about 18 years old and according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua employed somewhere nearby, attacked them with wire-cutters. You can see the first stages of the assault in the photo at right.

He launched his assault in the hotel lobby on Hayarkon Street in Tel Aviv's tourist precinct, according to Ynet which has security camera footage of the initial stages of the attack on its site at this hour. The photo above comes from different security cam footage on the Times of Israel site. From our viewing, it appears to be inside the Leonardo Beach Hotel (other reports quote other hotels).

With three victims down, he then fled outside and into the street where he stabbed another person before being stopped and arrested by police.

Israel National News says those hurt are a man in his 70s, two men in their fifties and a woman in her fifties. All are lightly injured and all were treated at the scene before being taken to Ichilov Hospital by Magen David Adom ambulance.

The attacker, a resident of Nablus, is evidently unhurt but likely to be offended by what Israel's justice system has in mind for him.

22-Nov-16: At Qalandiya, yet another would-be Pal Arab stabbing attacker is thwarted

The Qalandiya security checkpoint on a quieter morning
[Image Source: Mati Milstein]

At the Qalandiya Crossing on Jerusalem's northern edge, another Palestinian Arab man wielding a knife and evidently intent on finding an Israeli victim has been stopped by forceful Israeli scurity action.

Today's attempted assault happened at about 10:30 this morning (Tuesday). Not much is known at this stage about the attacker - his name, his age and where he comes from are all as yet unannounced in the news media - other than that the Arabic-language media already (no surprise in this) call him "martyr" (see for instance Ma'an News Agency's Arabic report here).

A spokesperson for Israel Police is quoted by Times of Israel saying

The attacker was declared dead of his wounds at the scene... [as] he attempted to stab a guard... [T]he assailant approached guards manning an area meant for vehicular traffic with a knife drawn and was shot. No Israeli guards were hurt.

Click here for our previous posts about the long, sad history of Palestinian Arab attacks on Israelis at Qalandiya.

UPDATE 1:30 pm Tuesday November 22: It's reported in Arab media that he Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health identifies today's failed stabber as Jihad Muhammad Said Khalil, 48, from the village of Beit Wazan, near Nablus.

19-Oct-16: At Tapuah Junction today, a young woman, a knife and a familiar narrative

At the scene [Image Source]

The entire country is on vacation for the week of Sukkot (Tabernacles). But there's no vacation from the threat of terror attacks..

From Ynet today:

An attempted stabbing attack took place at Tapuah Junction in the West Bank on Wednesday afternoon. A female attacker approached the Border Police at the junction and attempted to stab them. They responded by firing, and the attacker was neutralized. No Border Police were injured.

Via social media sources, it appears the meaning of "the attacker was neutralized" is that the armed assailant, a young woman estimated to be 19 years old, was shot and killed at the scene. The attack took place around 12:50 pm this afternoon. Tapuah Junction [click] has seen many such attacks.

UPDATE 3:00 pm: Over at Ma'an News Agency, there's the customary spin-filled reporting, with "alleged" being the prevailing sentiment (the word appears five times in a short news report):

Israeli forces shot and killed a young Palestinian woman at the Zaatara military checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus on Wednesday after she allegedly attempted to stab Israeli border police. The slain woman was identified by local sources as 23-year-old Raheeq Shajee Birawi from the village of Asira al-Shamaliya north of Nablus city...

The Arabic version of the Ma'an report [here] calls the girl (named رحيق شجيع بيراوي in Arabic) a "martyr", as do Arabic-language Twitter messages [here]. Ma'an's English version does not. That's the usual approach that this European-funded news packager takes in reports of thwarted Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks.

31-Dec-15: Pal Arab attacker rams car into Israelis

Times of Israel reports that an IDF soldier was lightly injured this morning (Thursday) in a vehicle-ramming attack at a road Junction between Tapuah and the Palestinian Arab town of Hawara. He received emergency treatment at the scene from IDF medics before being taken by ambulance to Belinson Hospital, part of the Rabin Medical Center complex, in Petach Tikvah.

The IDF force, from the Givati battalion, was patrolling Route 60 and according to Ynet had stopped to conduct security checks of Palestinian Arabs. The attacking driver was shot dead at the scene, according to the army. Reports say he was a Palestinian Arab of 22, Hassan Bazur. No further details at this stage, but as observers of the passion for blood and death in their society know, he is being turned into a martyr via posters and celebrations as we type these words.

Hawara (or Huwwara), near Nablus, has seen multiple Arab-on-Israeli stabbings and vehicle ramming attacks in the past three months of violence.

29-Nov-15: In Jerusalem, the knives continue to speak

The scene of today's attack, as depicted in a news photo of an earlier
essentially-identical attack at the same place, on October 14, 2015
[Image Source]

It's a bright, sunny Sunday morning here in Jerusalem and the knife-borne hatred is, once again, out there and on display for anyone wanting to understand.

Via Israel National News:

A policeman was injured in a stabbing at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate, outside the Old City, initial reports indicate Sunday morning. A Palestinian Arab attacker managed to stab the policeman as he was stopping the attack, reports say; the policeman is suffering from light injuries. The attack unfolded on Hagai St., a flashpoint for terror in the Old City in recent weeks...

Damascus Gate is one of the two major entrance/exit points for the Old City.

Times of Israel, in a slightly more updated report, explains that the victim's injuries are not so light. He was stabbed in the neck and is said to have suffered light to moderate injuries, After emergency treatment at the site, he was rushed to the Hadassah hospital in Ein Karem. The attacker was shot and killed by officers at the scene. The same source reports that the attacker is a resident of Nablus - we call it Shechem in Hebrew, and the Damascus Gate is called Shechem Gate in Hebrew - aged 38. AFP says his name is Bassem Salah. Witnesses heard him shout "Allahu akbar" as he plunged the knife into the victim's body. A second knife was found concealed in his clothing, indicting thwarted plans for additional savagery.

Unrelated - but of course related - there's security camera video [here] of an Israeli Border Guard officer being attacked from behind by an assailant with a knife in Nahariya, in Israel's north, on Friday night. The stabber turns out - yet again - to be a 16 year old Palestinian Arab boy.

23-Nov-15: A third knife-wielding Arab boy is dead in terror attack

The Arabic news site, Alquds, says today this photo shows the site
of the attempted stabbing [Image Source]

This post is about a low-profile terror attack today that has gotten almost no news coverage: also about little examined matters like where the terrorists come from, how they got there, who sent them and what this might mean for us and for peace and the future. They're serious existential questions.

According to Israel National News:

An Arab attempted a stabbing attack in the Hatmar Junction (also known as the Territorial Brigade junction - ed.) in Samaria on Monday afternoon, close to 3:00 pm. The stabber was eliminated by IDF soldiers at the scene before he was able to harm anyone.

This is the same checkpoint where another terror attack was done just yesterday. As Israel National News reported that, a little after 9 am Sunday a Palestinian Arab woman launched a stabbing assault on Israeli pedestrians in a place the article calls Brigade Square in the Samaria district. She failed to inflict any injuries on anyone. The attempt itself came to an end when a vehicle driven by a former head of the Samaria Regional Council deliberately plowed into her in order to thwart her obvious intentions, immediately after which IDF soldiers on duty at the site, acting on the relatively-new "shoot-to-kill-terror-attackers-in-the-act shot and killed her in the act.

Today's attack is reported in the Arab media with a few more details.

This version comes from International Middle East Media Center, self-described as "a joint Palestinian-International effort [that] combines Palestinian journalists' deep understanding of the context, history, and the socio-political environment with International journalists' skills in non-partisan reporting." It got started in 2003. Just how non-partisan is something we can discuss.

In any event, here's part of the IMEMC report:

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager on Monday afternoon after he allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli soldier at the Huwwara checkpoint south of Nablus, Israel's army said. An Israeli army spokesperson said that as the Palestinian approached the checkpoint, he "drew a knife and attempted to attack a soldier." She said that the soldier "responded to the immediate danger" and opened fire on the Palestinian, "resulting in his death." The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the alleged attacker to Ma'an News Agency as Alaa Khalil Sabah Hashah, 16. 

If they're right, this makes the hapless attacker at Huwwara Checkpoint the third Palestinian Arab 16 year-old child (yes, child) to be killed in the same day, today, while carrying out an attack on Israelis with a knife in his hand. We posted about the other two here and here.

Not for the first time, we ask ourselves and our readers how a society engineers things such that it produces children of 16 and less ready to kill and be killed in an undeclared war. Conveniently, one part of the answer popped up today via Twitter:

Via Twitter today

Erekat's pompous declaration ("just practising their right to self-defence") perfectly channels the condescension of the Palestinian Arab political elite that for decades has provided the foundation for relentless Palestinian Arab failure and self-destruction.

He is the Palestinian Authority's prodigious Senior Vice-President for Strategic Resignations [here's a partial list: "Erekat may resign after failing to secure future for Palestinians", Gulf News, November 4, 2015; "Abbas rejects resignation of Palestinian peace negotiator Erekat", Jerusalem Post, November 17, 2013; "PA's Erekat: I didn't resign", Ynet, October 31, 2013; "Despite Resignation, Longtime Peace Negotiator Erekat Carries On as Before", Forward, March 2011; "Saeb Erekat resigns as chief Palestinian negotiator", February 12, 2011, BBC; "Palestinians' Top Negotiator Quits", SKY News, May 16, 2003; "Palestinian cabinet resigns", BBC, September 11, 2002].

Erekat's public, bald-faced lies ["Erekat: Media’s Favorite Liar Resigns", Honest Reporting, February 14, 2011] are the stuff of legend. But not among Palestinian Arabs; in his home market, he incites, prods and urges as effectively as the worst of the PA insiders.

There is no single step we can think of that would be more helpful towards the emergence of a genuine peace-focused political process on the Palestinian Arab side than Erekat's actual, authentic resignation and removal from the "peace-making" process.

But beyond that, and setting aside the decades of corruption, venality, kleptocracy and child-abuse of the deceased Yasser Arafat, no one is entitled to a larger share of the credit for the perpetual downward spiral in the prospects for a better future (or any future) of Palestinian Arab children than their current president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Holding arms high to signify honour and respect, PA President
Mahmoud Abbas honours arrival in Ramallah of convicted terrorists - all of them
murderers - freed under US pressure from Israeli prison,
August 14, 2013.[Image Source]

Elected to a four year presidential term 11 full years ago, the autocratic Abbas - frequently called "moderate" by journalists and public figures who don't know better - seems not to have missed an opportunity during all his extremely well-compensated years in power to elevate the standing of terrorists in Palestinian Arab society to the status of heroes and role-models. He has been at the forefront of Palestinian Arab society's one and only effective undertaking: the glorification of violence and terror.

The announcement, in April 2008, that Abbas was 

awarding the Palestinian Authority's highest medal, the Al Quds Mark of Honor, to two convicted female terrorists currently serving terms for murder in Israeli prison left [us] trembling with rage. One of them, Ahlam Tamimi, murdered fifteen men, women and children in the terror attack on Jerusalem's Sbarro restaurant in August, 2001. Among the victims was [our] own fifteen year old daughter, Malki... [Our April 23, 2008 blog post]

A sober commentary at the time pointed out that

Conferring the Al Quds Mark of Honor is decided at the discretion of the Palestinian Authority’s president, and he alone has the final say when choosing the Palestinians to be honored with the medal... ["Abbas: A "Moderate" Honoring Terrorists", Honest Reporting, April 15, 2008] 

To say it bluntly: the unrepentant mass murderer Ahlam Tamimi, our daughter's killer, embodies for Mahmoud Abbas precisely the kind of Palestinian Arab personality worthy of the highest regard and emulation. (It happens that he reversed his decision a short time later but only because of intense pressure from outside the PA. He left little doubt that the original decision to bestow honor on two female killers of Jews conveyed a message in which he personally believed.)

Today's three dead 16 year olds, all about the same age our murdered daughter Malki was when she was murdered by the people who groomed them too, join the long list of Palestinian Arab lives - many of them the lives of children - thrown away for nothing other than to serve the vanity, greed and weakness of this hateful, bigoted, kleptocatic octogenarian fraudster.