06-Aug-15: Yet another jihad-by-car attack on Israelis

There's live video coverage from the scene as we write
this [here]

Near the ancient Jewish community of Shilo, there are three freshly injured Israelis who came under attack around 3:10 pm today (Thursday) by a terror-minded driver.

Israel National News says three of the targeted victims are injured, one of them, about 20, in critical condition with head injuries, a second in serious condition with multiple injuries, and the third lightly hurt.

The attacker came under fire immediately afterwards, thanks to some alert IDF service personnel and was left alive and injured and stuck inside his upside-down car.

From the available photographs, the attack car has yellow Israeli license plates, as opposed to the white plates issued by the Palestinian Authority. There's sure to be some follow up about that - often the vehicles used by jihad-minded attackers are stolen from Israelis to make their passage through security checkpoints a little easier. But we are only surmising that that's the case here.

The attack occurred at Sinjil Junction, located close to a Palestinian Arab village with that name. The junction is roughly 40 kilometers north of Jerusalem.

A helicopter is transporting the injured to hospital. Doctors and medics from Magen David Adom have been giving first-responder care to the three Israeli victims and to the attacker.

More when we know it.

29-Jun-15: Drive-by shooting attack near Shvut Rachel tonight [UPDATE]

It's a little after 11 on Monday night here in Jerusalem and Israel's news channels are suddenly crackling with reports of a drive-by shooting attack near Shvut Rachel, with indications that three people inside a single car are injured. Our post earlier today ["29-Jun-15: Fresh reasons today to appreciate Jerusalem's alert security personnel"] described additional terrorist attacks in the Jerusalem area. This time of year has a certain sickening attraction for the many in our area who have terrorism on their minds.

Via Israel National News, we understand that three people are seriously injured including one who is unconscious. They are being treated by paramedics at the scene, and currently awaiting the arrival of an evacuation helicopter to airlift them to a hospital.

Wikipedia's entry for Shvut Rachel absurdly calls the little village of about 110 families "a city". The Rachel part of its name honours Rachela Druk of the nearby community of Shilo, a mother of 7 who was murdered in a Palestinian Arab terror attack  on the civilian bus on which she was traveling in November 1991. The prolific Yisrael Medad blogged some helpful background in 2012 about Shvut Rachel and how it has been developing.

UPDATE Tuesday morning June 30, 2015: There were, it is now clear, four Israeli victims in the shooting last night. Ynet says the injuries of one are defined as serious, and those of the three others as moderate. All four are in their twenties, and all were struck by bullets in both upper and lower parts of their bodies. Two are hospitalized at Hadassah Ein Karem, and two at Shaarei Zedek Medical Center. The IDF has thrown up roadblocks and checkpoints throughout the area and large forces, including from the elite Special Forces Duvdevan Unit, are scouring the area for leads. Though we called it a drive-by shooting last night, it appears it might have been an ambush in which the shooters available themselves of an escape vehicle.

UPDATE Tuesday evening June 30, 2015: One of the four victims of last night's shooting has died of his injuries. He is Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld z"l. Like the others in the car, he lived in Kochav Hashachar, a community of some 300 families, located in the Binyamin district, roughly half an hour's drive north of Jerusalem.

08-Apr-15: Near Shiloh, a stabbing attack this morning

Israel National News says this is the scene of this morning's
knifing attack [Image Source]

According to Ynet ["Two IDF soldiers hurt in West Bank stabbing attack"], an attack took place in the past couple of hours at Sinjil Junction, close to the community of Shiloh in the Samaria District north of Jerusalem.

An IDF serviceman, reportedly about 20 years old, was seriously injured, evidently with stab wounds to the neck and upper body. He was rushed to Jerusalem's Shaarei Zedek Medical Center for emergency care. A second IDF serviceman suffered light injuries. The attacker, a Palestinian Arab it appears, was shot dead at the site by security forces. Searches are underway right now for others involved in the attack which evidently took place inside an IDF ambulance. It is likely the stabbing victims were medics (hovshim, in Hebrew).

"At 10:07, Magen David Adom's Jerusalem district received a message that a 20-year-old man had been stabbed on Route 60, close to the entrance to the Ma'ale Levona settlement. Medics and paramedics treated him at the site and evacuated him to a hospital in Jerusalem in serious condition with stab wounds to his upper body," said an MDA spokesman. [Ynet today]

Over at Israel National News, they report that there are two wounded Israelis in addition to the young man now in hospital. One of the two is said to be in moderate condition. The search now underway is in pursuit of Arab attackers, making a group of four perpetrators in all, including the one killed at the scene.

That same INN report reminds us that the most recent knifing attack on an Israeli target took place a mere five days ago. A young Palestinian Arab resident of Tulkarem, an underage minor with no prior security record until now, stabbed an IDF soldier of 22, the commander of a paratrooper unit, at Oranit Checkpoint along the Trans-Samaria Highway this past Thursday afternoon, April 2. The victim suffered stabbing injuries to the upper body including the head. He was rushed to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva in mild to moderate condition and conscious. We heard him describe his injuries the next day in a news radio interview. His soldiers had been rushed into the area after six Palestinian Arabs were detected illegally crossing the security barrier and attempting to cross into Israeli-controlled territory. In the course of that arrest, the attacker whipped out a knife and stabbed the officer who, despite the knife wounds and blood loss, managed to overpower the young thug. The officer is recovering.

We're praying today's outcome is no less benign for the on-duty knifing victims.

08-Nov-14: Tonight: rocks, boulders, fire-bombs, rioters

Jerusalem, yesterday [Image Source]

The terror waged on ordinary Israelis in the name of Palestinian Arab "rage" makes for dangerous times. The attacks and injuries around Israel tonight exemplify how law and order are unraveling with the steady escalation of incitement to violence from Arab quarters. All of the following happened tonight and are reported by Israel National News and Times of Israel.

• Palestinian Arabs hurled rocks and explosives at police and Border Police officers in Jerusalem's Ras al-Amud neighborhood. Police arrested two and dispersed the rioters. 
• Rock-hurling Palestinian Arabs targeted Israeli vehicles after the end of Sabbath tonight in the vicinity of Shiloh Junction in the Binyamin region of Samaria, north of Jerusalem. A three-year-old toddler traveling in a car was among several Israelis injured in one of those rock-hurling volleys; he was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem with head injuries.
• A bus traveling on Route 65 near the police station in Wadi Ara came under rock attack from Palestinian Arab rioters. Two passengers on board the bus are injured.
• A different bus traveling along Route 5, a major highway, near Barkan in northern Samaria (Shomron), struck a barrier on the side of the road after Palestinian Arab attackers pelted it with large rocks and the driver lost control of his vehicle. Three passengers are injured and treated on the spot by Magen David Adom paramedics before being ambulanced to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah.
• Dozens of Palestinian Arab rioters hurled rocks and fireworks at police and security forces in the A-Tur neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Israel Police has deployed riot-control teams in the area, and there have been arrests.
• There are three additional rock-throwing attacks on Jerusalem Light Rail trams tonight, all in the Palestinian Arab Beit Hanina community in Jerusalem's north. There are no injuries but carriage damage is reported and there have been arrests.
• In Jerusalem's Ral al-Amud neighbourhood, near Silwan, there are still more riots. This time, security forces were targeted with rocks and firebombs. There are arrests.
• Police officers shot dead a knife-wielding attacker after he repeatedly lunged at a police car with a knife in his hand. The attack is captured in a video on YouTube here (bear the images in mind when reading "‘My son’s killer is inhuman,’ says slain Arab man’s father", a Times of Israel interview). Riots among Arab residents of his community followed, and have been keeping police busy tonight. During Saturday, according to a Times of Israel report, Israel Police "decided to raise the national alert level to the second highest following riots that broke out in the Galilean town of Kafr Kanna in response to police killing Friday of an Arab man. Israel’s Arab sector has called a one-day strike Sunday in protest of the killing."

In other parts of the world, the violence is interpreted in creative ways:

Palestinians are extremely angry at Israeli settler raids (sic) on the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and restrictions imposed by Tel Aviv (sic) on Muslim worshippers’ access to the holy Islamic site. They accuse Tel Aviv of attempts to Judaize al-Quds, which Palestinians see as the capital of their future independent state. [PressTV (Iran), November 8, 2014]