13-Dec-18: Another lethal Arab-on-Israeli shooting attack Thursday

The scene of today's Givat Asaf  shooting [Hadas Parush/Flash90]

There has been another shooting attack today (Thursday): reports say two Israelis were killed - both of them IDF soldiers according to Israel National News - and two others were severely injured, one critically.

The attack happened near the Palestinian Arab town of Silwad, on Route 60 near the Givat Asaf community, about two kilometers from Ofra, the site of the Sunday night shooting.

The shooters escaped after the attack and a large-scale IDF manhunt is currently underway.

Times of Israel, quoting the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, says one gunman exited a vehicle along the Route 60 highway and opened fire at a group of soldiers and civilian Israelis before fleeing. It seems likely that the soldiers were there doing security work - probably standing guard to protect the civilians.

It also quotes Palestinian Arab media saying the attack vehicle was quickly abandoned nearby and two suspects — the driver and the shooter — got away on foot in the direction of Ramallah.

Two of the victims were declared dead at the scene. One of the injured, a 21-year-old male, is in critical life-threatening condition with a bullet wound to the head. He is receiving emergency care at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital.

A female civilian is seriously injured and is getting emergency care at the trauma center of Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

The army has closed off the entrances to Ramallah and set up roadblocks throughout the area. Additional infantry battalions were sent into the West Bank both to defend roads and settlements and to conduct additional searches and arrests, the army said.

UPDATE Thursday December 13, 2018 at 9:00 pm: As reported this evening, the soldiers shot to death are Staff Sgt. Yovel Mor Yosef, 20, and Sgt. Yosef Cohen, 19.

Mor Yosef was from the southern city of Ashkelon. Cohen was a resident of Beit Shemesh. Both were members of the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda infantry battalion, a unit for religious soldiers... Mor Yosef’s funeral will be held in Ashkelon and Cohen’s in Jerusalem on Friday morning. A third soldier was critically injured in the shooting and underwent surgery for a gunshot wound to the head at Hadassah Hospital Ein Karem in Jerusalem on Thursday. A civilian woman was also seriously wounded... [Times of Israel]

26-Nov-18: An Arab-on-Israeli vehicle ramming attack this afternoon - the driver is dead, the injured are recovering

Image Source

A little after noon today, three IDF servicemen doing construction work along the side of the road were struck by a car driven by a Palestinian Arab male.

This happened on Route 60 as that highway passes Karmei Tzur, an Israeli community of about 1,100, located 22 km south of Jerusalem, just south of Gush Etzion Junction.

The IDF says one has moderate injuries to all four limbs while the others are injured lightly - scrapes and bruises. All were treated at the scene by ambulance crews and then taken to hospitals in Jerusalem for treatment.

This is believed by the military to have been a deliberate vehicle-ramming attack. A fourth soldier, an Army reservist, fired at the driver and killed him. In the Arab media, the suspected attacker is named as Ramzi Abu Yabes, 32, a resident of Dheisheh refugee camp.

UPDATE November 27, 2018: In its customary way, the European-funded-and-backed Palestinian Arab news channel, Ma'an News Agency, casts doubt ["Palestinian shot, killed for alleged attack near Gush Etzion"] on the version of events reported from Israel. That's in its English-language edition. But in its Arabic version, the driver of the attack vehicle is called 'martyr'. And overnight, according to a reliable source [here], Hamas, which is less interested in vagueness and more in  open incitement, released a statement

"calling Ramzi Abu Yabes a hero for using his vehicle to strike three #IDF soldiers along a central West Bank highway today. His home is currently adorned with Hamas flags and visitors."

Another Arabic source [here], quoting a spokesperson for the ambulance that attended the scene, says Abu Yabes

"was on a mission to treat a burn patient in Beit Ummar [and] had undergone a cardiac catheterization for almost two months which made him unable to control the driving of the car, which deviated towards Israeli soldiers... and it is not true that he carried out the operation in favor of any Palestinian faction."

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..."

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.

07-Mar-17: Arab-on-Israeli stabbing at Jerusalem's main southern entry point today

We're hearing reports of an Arab-on-Israeli stabbing near the Tunnel Road security checkpoint around 11:15 this morning (Tuesday).

Israel National News says the victim is a man in his 40s, evidently an Israeli, and the alleged attacker is "reportedly an Arab resident of the Palestinian Authority". Police are still investigating what happened at this hour.

The victim of the attack is conscious with injuries "across his upper torso" that are said to be "light". He was taken by ambulance to Shaarei Zedek Medical Center hospital for treatment.

A report with an accompanying photo on the Hebrew-language Rotter.net news site [see image at right] suggests the victim is a Haredi Orthodox Jew.

The Tunnel Road is part of a major north-south Israel highway, Route 60. At the point where the attack evidently occurred, it principally serves traffic passing between Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion communities south of the capital.

UPDATE March 7, 2017 at 4:30 pm: Israel National News now explains what happened:

"According to a police investigation into the attack, the victim had taken his car to a mechanic in the Arab village of al-Walaja just south of Jerusalem. After work on the car was completed, the driver left the village. On his way out, he spotted an Arab hitchhiker waiting by the exit of the village for a ride. The victim offered him a ride, which the hitchhiker accepted. During the drive on Route 60, the Arab hitchhiker stabbed the driver, then fled the vehicle."

We're presuming there's a search underway for the hitch-hiker. And that the now-much-wiser Israeli driver is offering special prayers for having survived the stabbing attack.

27-Jul-16: The Hamas terrorists who murdered Rabbi Miki Mark are located and forcibly retired

In the PA-controlled village of Surif this morning, the body of a
terrorist gunman is removed by IDF soldiers [Image Source]

Violent riots erupted in the PA-controlled village of Surif, north of Hebron, early this morning (Wednesday) as a joint IDF, Shin Bet and Israel Police operation trapped the four-person terror cell that murdered Rabbi Michael Mark, the executive director of the Otniel Hesder Yeshiva, on July 1 [link] and seriously injured his wife and children. The victims of that attack were traveling in a car that came under murderous gunfire on Route 60 ["01-Jul-16: The drive-by shooting near Otniel"].

Times of Israel reports that the members of the Hamas-aligned terror cell

opened fire at the Israeli troops from inside the house in which he was hiding, and the IDF responded by firing several anti-tank missiles... The IDF then used a bulldozer to knock down most of the building, and when the troops finally entered the destroyed home they found Fakih dead inside...

One of the cell members, Muhammad al-Fakih, 29, died and three others were taken into custody, unharmed. According to Reuters this morning

Islamist group Hamas identified the man killed in the raid as Mohammad al-Fakih and it said he was a member of its armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades

The Ma'an News Agency version follows the customary template, starting with the title of the piece: "Palestinian accused of Hebron shooting killed after Israeli forces bombard house":

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that five Palestinians were shot with rubber-coated bullets during clashes in Surif. [IDF Spokesperson Avichai Edre'i] confirmed that a Palestinian woman sustained minor wounds during the military attack and was taken to a hospital for treatment, adding that a Kalashnikov machine gun and a grenade were found in the house. Locals said Israeli forces detained four Palestinians from Surif during the raid, identified as Ahmad Ibrahim al-Hur, Diyaa Khalid Ghneimat, and Muhammad Ali al-Heeh, the owner of the demolished house in which Faqih was hiding. Al-Heeh’s mother was also detained... Faqih himself was from the village of Dura in southern Hebron. [Ma'an, July 28, 2016]

The Arabic edition of the Ma'an story, again following the customary approach of one version for the Arabic speakers, a specifically different and carefully sanitized one for foreigners, says

The [Israeli] army claimed to find gun-type rifles and grenades next to the martyr... ["Martyrdom of a citizen after bombing and besieging of a home in Surif", Ma'an Arabic, July 28, 2016]

A martyr al-Fakih assuredly is becoming as we write these lines. Hamas, which de facto controls large swathes of the nominally Fatah/PA towns and villages of the mis-named "West Bank" (a name given to it for the first time by the Jordanian occupation forces who conquered it militarily in the course of the 1947-49 War of Independence in which the most of the Arab world sought to destroy the nascent state of Israel), is active now preparing for a showcase funeral and demonstrations of rage and power. These, as always, are intended not only as a token of how far away peace is, but to show that the PA - with all its foreign aid, its police and its European-supplied limousines for insiders - actually takes a back seat to the Hamas organizers on the ground.

01-Jul-16: The drive-by shooting near Otniel

The victims' vehicle flipped after the people inside came under
a massive hail of gun-fire [Image Source]

We know more now about the innocent victims of today's Arab-on-Israeli attack on a civilian vehicle and the civilians traveling in it near Otniel, south of Hebron. They are members of a single family.

Times of Israel says

An Israeli man was killed Friday afternoon and his wife was seriously hurt when their family car came under gunfire from a passing vehicle and overturned, south of the West Bank city of Hebron. The couple’s children were also hurt. A 14-year-old daughter was in moderate-to-serious condition and a 15-year-old son was lightly injured... The family’s car flipped over due to the attack, close to Beit Hagai on Route 60, the army said.

Israel National News adds that the

wife was seriously wounded in the attack, and was evacuated to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body... According to initial reports, a Kia sedan overtook the family as they drove along Route 60 and opened fire, striking both parents and causing the car to overturn. As many as 20 shots were fired at the car, investigators say. The victims are reportedly a well-known family from the area, who live close to another family struck by a deadly terrorist attack during the latest wave of Arab terror. IDF forces responded quickly and are currently pursuing the terrorists who carried out the attack.

Though no announcement of an official kind has been made yet about the identity of the family, names are being mentioned in corners of the social media and it does indeed appear the family are well-known, and connected with a major educational institution in the area of the attack.

UPDATE: Very sorry to have to report this: "Grief and Tears as Rabbi Michael Mark, Hy”d, Is Laid to Rest", Hamodia, July 3, 2016

12-Jan-16: Tuesday terror attacks: one by shooting, one by knifing

An IDF security checkpoint near Abu Dis [Wikipedia image]

It can be disconcerting when the weather in Israel turns unusually mild and fine in the middle of winter. That's because the evidence suggests young Palestinian Arab men and women find it somehow more congenial to launch terror attacks on Israeli targets (read Israeli human bodies) at such times.

Today is one such day. So far, though they are barely noticed and almost completely unreported outside Israel, there have been two.

The IDF, quoted by Israel National News, says a small group of Arab gunmen opened fire on soldiers manning the Abu Dis security checkpoint, close to Bethlehem. They arrived at the target site by car, opened fire without inflicting any injuries (or worse) and quickly drove off. As we write this, a search is underway; none of the culprits has been apprehended yet.

The second was a stabbing attack. This afternoon around 1:00 pm, a Palestinian Arab assailant, brandishing a knife, lunged at an IDF soldier stationed at the Beit Anoun junction on Route 60, some 5 km north of Hebron and close to Kiryat Arba. (A similar attack, with a similar outcome, happened in the same area this past Thursday night.) Alert soldiers, presumably aware of the constant threat in the area and spotting the attacker, opened fire and ended the assault as well as the attacker's career. (Ma'an News Agency suggests two attackers were killed, but there is no confirmation of that from Israel as of the time we are writing this.) On the Facebook page of the terrorism-friendly Shehab News Agency, the dead knifer's portrait is already published along with the familiar salutes to his "martyrdom".

24-Dec-15: A thwarted stabbing assault near Hebron

At Tzomet Hakvasim (in English: Sheep Junction; also called Tzomet Ha'ari) on Route 60 near the Beit Hagai community in the South Hebron hills area, a Palestinian Arab male launched a stabbing attack this morning on soldiers manning the security checkpoint located there.

(Route 60 is better known to Israelis as "Way of the Patriarchs" (Hebrew: דרך האבות‎) since, as Wikipedia describes, it follows the path of the ancient highway running the length of Israel's central watershed and plays a role in the travels of the Biblical patriarchs. Today's Route 60 runs north/south between Beer Sheva in Israel's Negev desert all the way to Nazareth in the Galilee.)

Kvasim has some heavy history: the service men were surely aware that three of their IDF colleagues had been killed at the same spot on January 23, 2003 in a shooting attack for which both Hamas and Fatah/PA/PLO improbably claimed 'credit'. The Hebrew name Tzomet Ha'Ari pays homage to the Hebrew names of the three fallen soldiers:  אסף ביטן, רון ברד ויעקב נעים - Asaf, Ron, Yaakov).

The security checkpoint was removed by decision of the government of Israel in 2008 (reported here) and then reinstated some time later.

The assailant's weapon of choice in this morning's Kvasim attack was a screwdriver was shot and killed near the West Bank city of Hebron Thursday morning, the Israeli military said. He "approached a checkpoint near Hebron and attempted to stab the security forces", says Times of Israel's report. He was shot by IDF fire before doing any serious harm, and died of his wounds at the scene.

Ma'an News Agency identifies the failed knifer as Eiad Jamal Issa Ideis 25 (and elsewhere as Eyad Jamal Ed’eis, 26; and as Eyad Edeasat) from the town of of Yatta, located close to the scene of the attack. We assume posters announcing his elevation to martyrdom - the underlying justification and 'reward' for such pointless aggression - are being printed as we write this. In parts of the Arabic-language social media (here for instance), the attempted killer is said to have been "executed in cold blood by Israeli forces".

Fortunately, no Israelis were injured in this incident. It came less than an hour after another knifing assault near Ariel, with more serious consequences to the Israeli targets, as we reported here.

05-Nov-15: "Suspected" attacker in "purported" ramming is "allegedly" dead, Israelis "claim"

Alleged funeral today [Image Source]

In yet another vehicle-ramming attack on Israelis yesterday (Wednesday), a Palestinian Arab driver, identified by the PA Ministry of Health (in a Ma'an News Agency report today) as Ibrahim Skafi, 22, from the Tulkarem/Samaria area, drove his vehicle into a cluster of Israeli Border Guard officers standing by the side of a road. The attack happened at the Halhul Junction, near Hevron, on Route 60. 

Times of Israel says the driver was stopped with a single shot fired by members of the Israeli security forces at the scene. He died, and his body was promptly handed over to his family for burial. Here's the photographic evidence.

As for his victims, a 20 year-old male is reported to be in critical condition as of today (Thursday) at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, in the intensive care unit. He suffered multiple injuries, including a severe injuries to the head. A second Border Police officer was struck and also injured in the attack. He is doing much better.

An Arabic-language site published video of the attack - it's embedded below. Watching an act of deliberate attempted murder unfold is altogether different from hearing reports using the laconic term "vehicle ramming".

Plainly, the attack was not directed at the two Israelis who were struck but at a much larger group (though it seems only two needed hospitalization).

Adopting their customary "Who are you going to believe? Us or your lying eyes?" commitment to objective reporting, the English-language side of the Arab media report the attempt to kill the young Israelis in ambiguous language that has a sadly familiar feel to its cloudiness, hedging and doubt-sowing:

• Ma'an calls it "a suspected vehicular attack". 
• WAFA, the PA's official news mouthpiece, says the driver "was shot dead by Israeli forces purportedly for ramming his vehicle into two Israeli soldiers at Halhul junction, north of Hebron, as Israeli authorities claimed."
• Demotix, a photo-and-news site, says Skafi, the driver, "was allegedly shoot dead after he rammed Israeli soldiers by a car..." Snapshots of the mourning family and friends suggest they weren't fooled by all the allegedlies; for them, he scored a victory.

Demotix image from yesterday's gathering in honor of the deceased driver
indicates that for some of the mourners, his death signified
a victory [Image Source]

But in the Arabic-language parts of the Arabic media, there's much less ambivalence and double-talk. For the Arabic-speaking public, the driver is a hero, already admitted to the pantheon of Palestinian Arab shahidim.

• As this Arabic media, site demonstrates, he was immediately declared a martyr. They show the posters...
• and the post-death portraits
• This Arabic-language site says he carried out a "heroic operation" in which he "ran over a number of Zionist soldiers" "resulting in the killing of an Israeli soldier" (which is not true).
• PAnet, the Arabic-language news site "serving the young adult Israeli Arab community" writes today that the family of "the 23 year old martyr Ibrahim Samir Ibrahim Scavi from the city of Hebron" "announced they will be receiving well-wishers for the martyrdom of the son in the Hebron municipality hall for three days starting from Thursday." 

On the other hand, The Associated Press reports the events factually and devoid of spin:

A Palestinian rammed his vehicle into an Israeli police officer in the West Bank on Wednesday, seriously injuring him before he was shot and killed, police said. It was the latest in a nearly two-month rash of violence that has seen almost daily Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. [AP, November 4, 2015]

Hamas, rarely reluctant to stoke the flames, wants much more:

The leader-in-exile of the Islamic militant group Hamas on Wednesday urged Palestinians to step up unrest to "liberate Jerusalem and the West Bank," saying efforts by his internationally backed Palestinian rival are insufficient. [Source]

Efforts? What we see in the video clip above is what he means by efforts. And he and his fellow Hamas kleptocrats make clear they are not getting enough of it. And will try hard for more.

UPDATE: November 8, 2015 - The Israeli victim mentioned above, Binyamin Yakubovich, died today of his injuries. He was just 19. Details of his life were published on this Israeli government website.