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".

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

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

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

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

An initial bulletin via Ynet says:

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

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

More details when we get them.

19-Aug-17: Tapuah Junction: An Arab-on-Israeli knifing attack is thwarted

The stabber's ID documents are circulating on
social media [Source]

Lethal Arab-on-Israeli knifing attacks keep happening even as mainstream news channels ignore their reality.

A boy from Tulkarem, a Palestinian Arab city of about 62,000 that has been under the full control of the Palestinian Authority since 1995, was killed today while attempting to stab an Israeli service person at Tapuah Junction. From social media, we see the attack was reported around 5:30 Saturday afternoon.

The knifer would have had his seventeenth birthday, according to the image of his ID papers, in seven weeks time.

Yet another weaponized child from the PA's evil production line. Yet another family whose economic standing will rise sharply thanks to the boy's self-destruction (click "Rewards for Terror" to see dozens of previous instances). Yet another life sacrificed to the hideous ambitions of the rich old men who have run Palestinian Arab lives for decades.

Israel's Channel 2 TV news reported this evening that he left a note for his parents, a sort of last will and testament, telling them he had set off to do a “revenge attack”. They should not mourn him, he wrote, because he is now a “martyr”. (A Palestinian Arab website offers the full text.) The PA will ensure he becomes one.

Times of Israel quotes the Health Ministry of the PA which identifies him as Qutaiba Zahran. It reports that an IDF officer was lightly wounded in the attack. The knifer, it says, approached IDF officers stationed at Tapuah Junction in the Samaria district where there have been many previous attacks of a similar nature in recent years. The security personnel called on him to halt as he approached, but instead he pulled out a knife and launched his attack on them. He was then promptly shot and killed, according to police.

The injured IDF officer is 21 and was taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah for further treatment.

08-Dec-16: At Tapuah Junction, yet another young man and a knife... and a familiar outcome

This cartoon appeared recently in the Palestinian
Arab media after yet another knifing attack on Israelis.
The Arabic text reads: "Good morning Palestine"
[Image Source]  

The attractions of Tapuah Junction to the stabbers and shooters of Palestinian Arab society proved irresistable this morning yet again to another would-be 'resistance hero'.

Just before 9 this morning (Thursday), a Palestinian Arab attacker was thwarted attempting to launch a stabbing attack at the frequent scene of stabbing and shooting attempts in Israel's Samaria district. The outcome this time? He

was shot and killed by troops, police said. No Israelis were hurt in the attempted stabbing attack at a bus stop at the Tapuah Junction in the northern West Bank. Police spokesperson Luba Samri said the assailant, an 18-year-old resident of the West Bank city of Qalqilya, alighted a bus at the junction and began moving toward border guards there. After ignoring orders to stop, the man “continued to move toward them and at a certain point even pulled a knife out and attacked them,” Samri said in a statement. He was shot and killed. Security forces are regularly stationed at and near the junction, which has been a flashpoint of violence over the past year. Photos from the scene of the attack showed the assailant lying lifeless on a sidewalk as a soldier stood watch nearby... ["Palestinian pulls knife on troops in West Bank, shot and killed", Times of Israel, December 8, 2016]

The Palestinian Arab media allegedly have their allegedly standard way of reporting such attacks, as Ma'an News Agency demonstrates today:

A Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli border police force... after he allegedly attempted to carry out a stabbing attack... Locals identified the slain Palestinian as Jihad Hussein Harb, 19, from Qalqiliya... While Israel alleges many of those were attempting to attack Israelis when they were shot, Palestinians and rights groups have disputed Israel's version of events in a number of cases... ["Palestinian youth killed by Israeli forces after alleged attempted stabbing near Nablus", Ma'an, December 8, 2016]

Ma'an's Arabic edition (but not the English language version), in its news ticker - the story doesn't yet have its own page - calls the thwarted killer a "martyr"

شهيد برصاص الاحتلال عند مفرق زعترة جنوب نابلس بزعم محاولة الطعن

His portrait is already all over the Arabic social media (here for instance) as are photos of his dead body at the bus shelter (here for instance). Martyrdom posters and a celebratory funeral and mourning wake are surely not far behind.

The weaponization of their youth and children continue to be a core value of Palestinian Arab culture and society, with the formal and very public backing of its political echelon starting with its president and continuing all the way down to its schools and mosques.

The possibility of acheving peace in circumstances like these? Absolutely none.

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.

01-Aug-16: At the crossings and road junctions: Scenes from a war

Vehicles line up for security inspection at Huwwara
(not yesterday) [Image Source]

Israel's internal security arrangements tend to get very bad press despite the fact that - or is it because? - they frequently prevent acts of terror from taking place.

We happen to believe strongly in security arrangements. When we say "human rights", we actually mean to be thinking, first and foremost, about the human right to stay alive. It's a right that was denied our daughter Malki, murdered in a Hamas attack when she was fifteen, and a right the breach of which aroused, in simple terms, terribly little outrage by the human rights industry.

Yesterday (Sunday), a balmy summer day when much of the country was vacationing, provided several insights into how security works and who benefits. This is true not because yesterday was a special day but because it actually was not. And what's striking is that for all the arguing that security barriers are pointless, worthless, useless, ineffective because terrorists can easily avoid them, and a torture for those forced to endure them, the uncomfortable fact remains: those are exactly where malevolent people with weapons of death on their bodies or in their bags or cars keep turning up and keep getting caught.

• At the IDF security checkpoint at Huwwara, south of Shechem (Nablus), an Arab male driving a vehicle stopped shortly before reaching the soldiers manning the barrier, got out of his car and came running at them with his knife brandished. The soldiers acting on orders opened fire in the face of a hostile action with clearly-articulated intentions, and the attack ended. The assailant, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, quoted by Israel National News, is a 31 year old resident of Shechem. Ma'an News Agency gives his name as Rami Muhammad Zaim Awartani. The circumstances suggest he was intent on launching the sort of interaction for which knives are needed, and not - as is frequently claimed - en route to some other peaceful purpose when assailed by hostile IDF personnel. The attacker is now dead - assassinated, in the words of parts of the English-language Palestinian Arab media [click].
• Also on Sunday, a little later in the day, Israeli police stopped a Palestinian Arab taxi cab at the busy Tapuah intersection in the Samaria district. Such searches are common and routine, and often triggered by suspicions stemming from indicators for which the security people are trained to identify. In this case, their search turned up parts of M16-type weapons in the cab. The driver is now helping the authorities with their enquiries. He is unharmed.
• Then last night (Sunday) at the Trans-Samaria Crossing, a vehicle driven by an Israeli Arab with Israeli citizenship papers was stopped and in the course of a search was found to have four pipe bombs on board. The driver was heading back across the Green Line from the communities of Judea and Samaria. A police sapper was called to the scene to neutralize the bombs. While that was underway, the very heavily-traveled east-west Route 5 highway was temporarily shut down to traffic in both directions. The driver turns out to be a resident of the Bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev. He is now arrested and he too is helping the authorities in their enquiries.

The Trans-Samaria Crossing on Israel's east-west Route 5 [Image Source]

Closely related to that last intercept - just the evening before (Saturday night) at the same Trans-Samaria Crossing - a different Palestinian Arab driver was was arrested when a security check turned up a stock of weapons, including two large knives, two axes and a cache of 25 nine-millimeter bullets, inside his vehicle. Times of Israel said his car had Israeli license plates.

It's safe to assume that in the absence of the security arrangements in each of the locations we just described, very different outcomes would have eventuated.

That's a reality that has played a central role in the posts we wrote over the years. Take a look at "5-Jul-06: Preventive Measures... Work" from more than a decade ago. We noted there that

There are many aspects of the news coverage of this war that infuriate us. One of them is the dishonest and cowardly way some reporters and photographers distort how the Israeli authorities carry out preventive security. Among the favorite cliches of agenda-driven reporters and photographers... is the Israeli security check. Nothing captures quite so well their perception of an asymmetrical war. You can count on words like "forced to stand in the heat", "treated rudely by Israeli troops", "seething anger", "humiliation" and "demeaning" sprouting from each sentence. But never the unbearable truth that this is the strategy of last resort and it saves lives on both sides...

For those of us not infected by the Fiskean approach to this war, the role of active, preventive security is probably better appreciated. A classic of the genre is Robert Fisk's memorable article with the unmemorable title "How Pointless Checkpoints Humiliate the Lions of Palestine, Sending Them on the Road to Vengeance" [reviewed here - we are still hunting for an online version of the Fisk piece]. If you click the link to read it, please keep in mind it was written several weeks before the murder by Hamas terrorists of our fifteen year-old daughter. Ponder also on the fact that Malki's killer hid his explosives inside a guitar case on his back. Under current Israeli security procedures (but not at that time), he would have been stopped and our daughter would be twenty and alive. (The death toll that day was 15, plus 130 injured, plus a young mother left unconscious and still unconscious today.) 

The appalling Fisk, and perhaps also his editors at Britain's Independent newspaper, would find it hard to see what that has to do with him and his writing. But for us the connection is clear. 

Eliyahu Asheri Hy"d: Murdered a decade ago

Not everyone sees things as we do. That's because not everyone sees security as a significant factor in keeping their own lives and those of their loved ones safe and intact. But those of us who do are very serious about it and very appreciative of those who make it happen.

Incidentally, if you visit Tapuah Junction (mentioned above), you will find a brand-new rest facility there for travelers. It was inaugurated very recently by the Asheri family in honor of their son, Eliyahu Hy"d, to mark ten years since he was abducted and murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists. 

We wrote about them at the time of their terrible loss: see "29-Jun-06: The face of the enemy" and "4-Jul-06: Saving Hostages". 

Though we felt drawn to the tragedy of their son's death and took part in his funeral in Jerusalem all those years ago, we don't know the Asheris and have never met them. Still, we're confident they have not spent the past decade plotting revenge, stewing in their anger or incubating hatred. We are confident of that because of our close familiarity with that powerful urge in Jewish tradition to connect really bad events - personal and communal tragedies - to positive responses: acts of charity or of chesed - acts that bring a little more goodness into a world that needs as much as we can possibly provide.

The Asheris understand that. Mr Fisk and his editors, we assume, surely do not. And nor will the families of the violence-minded individuals in yesterday's three jihadist near-misses.

03-Apr-16: A second knifing attack, this time at Tapuah Junction

On this gorgeous spring Sunday, a second terrorist knifing attack has just happened at the Tapuah road junction in Israel's Samaria district. Israel National News says an armed Arab attacker approached members of an IDF team stationed at the junction, and pulled out a knife, leaving them in no doubt of his murderous intentions.

In response, the soldiers followed procedures for arresting a terror suspect, which include firing in the air, and the unnerved terrorist threw away his knife. He was arrested and handcuffed while lying on the ground; fortunately he did not manage to harm anyone... [Israel National News today]

We wrote about the day's previous knife attack here.

21-Feb-16: Sunday stabbings

Working journalists [Image Source: Jerusalem Post]

Brief details here of today's Arab-on-Israeli terrorist violence, based on Israel National News' report. There have been three separate attacks so far.

1. Early Sunday morning, a knife-wielding Arab girl was arrested when she attempted a stabbing attack on security personnel at the Tapuah Junction checkpoint. She is a 17 year old from the Arab village of Qusra. She stood near a bus stop at the junction, evidently waiting for victims. She was fortunately discovered and arrested after brandishing her knife but before causing any life-threatening problems to others.
2. Later Sunday morning, a 14 year old Arab boy launched a brazen assault on IDF soldiers near Bani Na’im, east of Hebron. The INN report says he opened the door of an IDF jeep and tried to stab the soldiers inside. They overpowered him and took him into custody. He is alive and very, very lucky.
3. Minutes after that attack, another attempted stabbing, this time direct at Israeli civilians, was launched at an intersection near the town of Huwwara. This third attacker was shot dead at the site (Times of Israel says this it happened at Bitot Junction) before getting close enough to his intended victims to do damage. Palestinian media sources, quoted by Times of Israel, say the attacker, Qusai Diab Abu al-Roub, is 15 years old, a resident of Qabatiya, south of Jenin.

It's unlikely that any one of these attacks, or the three of them taken together, will get much analytic coverage in the media. And neither will the single most disturbing fact about these and many of the attacks that came before them in these past five months of bigoted frenzy: that all of them are the work of children - and of course the men who groom them, incite them, congratulate them and elevate them to the status of heroes. 

And at a deeper level - that they are faithfully expressing what their society expects of them and encourages them to do. The conspiracy of silence that accompanies the Palestinian Arab child-abuse industry, the weaponization of the children living in their villages and towns (but never the children of the insider elite), is the real unreported story. 

Does anyone at the Tel-Aviv-based Foreign Press Association have anything to say about this? Their compliance with one of the ugliest aspects of an ugly ongoing pattern of conduct does them and their editors absolutely no credit.

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.

26-Nov-15: At Tapuah, another knife attacker is stopped

There has been yet another knifing attack at Tapuah Junction. This morning, a Palestinian Arab male emerged from taxi that dropped him at the security checkpoint at Tapuah Junction (other reports say he got there via his own car), and ran with a knife toward soldiers shouting “Allahu Akbar,” according to police quoted by Times of Israel. That's the location where numerous attacks - including stabbings, shootings and vehicle-rammings - have been executed by Palestinian Arabs in the past two months, and less frequently in the years before. [Some dozens of our Tapuah posts are here.] The assailant was immediately shot by alert service personnel at the security checkpoint. The web-based television news channel i24news is reporting that he died of his injuries. No Israelis are reported hurt.

UPDATE via The Associated Press: "The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the assailant as 51-year-old Samir Seresi."

24-Nov-15: Another Palestinian Arab vehicle-ramming terror attack at Israel's Tapuah Junction

The scene about 8 am at Tapuah Junction. The attacker's vehicle is in the
center of the photo [Image Source: Video screen grab]

The Palestinian Arab violence in Israel got off to an early start today.

At Tapuah Junction, a busy intersection, transit interchange and hitch-hiking point on Route 60 in the Samaria district that attracts hostile attention for those reasons alone, there has been yet another vehicle-ramming attack.

Shortly after 8 this morning (Tuesday), a Palestinian Arab driving a fairly new and shiny black Volkswagen Polo with PA license plates (we see this in the video) drove at high speed into a cluster of commuters standing at one of the Tapuah bus stops.

Attacker after being stopped
[Image Source]

Israel National News quotes the first responders of Magen David Adom saying that four people, all in their twenties, are injured. Two are ranking officers in Israel's citizen military, the IDF (where commuting from home to base or office by public bus, as these people seem to have been doing, is a commonplace): a Lieutenant Colonel and a Colonel. One has suffered what are termed moderate injuries - evidently to the stomach and head. The other three are injured lightly in the limbs. All four were rushed to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva,

The attacker was stopped by gunshots from patrolling Border Guard forces at the scene. We know he or she was alive at the end of the attack, though neutralized; there are no details we can find for now about his/her condition or fate. What's important is the attack was stopped and a worse outcome averted.

08-Nov-15: Ramming vehicles into Israelis again this morning

Scene of this morning's vehicle-ramming attack on
Israelis. The race is on now to declare the driver a
martyred hero, and (the Palestinian Paradox) the whole
affair an accident on his part

There are reports this morning of a vehicle-ramming attack on Israeli civilians standing at the bus/hitch-hike station at Tapuah Junction in the Samaria district.

Israel National News:

A Palestinian Arab terrorist carried out a car attack at Tapuach junction in Samaria on Sunday morning, shortly after 9:30 am, initial reports state. The driver was apparently heading northward along Route 60, toward Huwwara, when he plowed his car into the trempiada, or hitchiking and bus stop, at the popular intersection. Three people - teenagers or young adults who were waiting for rides - are injured. Two are seriously injured; they have been evacuated by helicopter to nearby hospitals. The third is listed as suffering from light injuries. 

Ynet

The terrorist drove rapidly towards a group of Israelis standing at a hitchhiking station before colliding with them. Border Police forces permanently stationed at the junction shot at the attacker, who ran into a concrete obstacle and died.

The initial reports describe rather horrifying injuries to the victims.

30-Oct-15: As Hamas announces more rage, "lone wolf" attackers pounce on cue

Tapuah Junction in the past hour: The aftermath [Image Source]

The terrorist regime run by the Islamists of Hamas, from their perches safely inside the Gaza Strip and in their glitzy luxe apartments in the Persian Gulf statelets, have declared today (Friday) yet another Day of Rage in Judea and Samaria. Their call is explicit incitement to "young Palestinians" to engage in bloody "heroic actions".

It's likely that both parts of the statement will be fulfilled. The dead attackers will be declared "heroes". And most will be young and in a rush to throw their lives away on request. In some ways, the image popularized in parts of the mainstream news media of them displaying lone wolf characteristics is right - in the sense that lemmings act "alone" in vast groups. (What lemmings are famous for is shown in this video. But as faithful reader DS points out via pointing to a different video, there is another interpretation.) 

The responses to the Islamist call have not been slow in coming:

• In the past few minutes (it's now Friday 1:45 pm), a stabbing attack by Arabs was launched on Israeli civilians standing at a tram stop in the Ammunition Hill section of Jerusalem. Israel National News says one of the injured is a yeshiva student of 22 with stab wounds to the upper body. He is evidently only one of several victims. The attacker was shot dead. No details about his identity yet.
• Also this afternoon, another stabbing attack on a group of Israeli security personnel protecting the busy Tapuah Junction in Samaria, close to Jenin and the scene of many previous terrorist events. According to a Border Police release, the assault was repulsed; its officers "responded with precise gunfire and eliminated the terrorists." Times of Israel says the attackers arrived at the scene on motorbikes, pulling out knives as they approached Border Police on duty. The Israelis reacted quickly and properly and none were hurt. One terrorist is dead. The second is reported to be in critical condition. 

The day is not over.

25-Oct-15: A day in the life of a society under siege

From the Metzad community's website 

Not a quiet day here.

• At about 10:00 this morning (Sunday), an Israeli driving his vehicle near Metzad, a community in the Gush Etzion area, came under rock attack. He exited the vehicle for reasons about which we can speculate and was approached by one man or two who might have been dressed in clothing that made them look like Haredi Jews (those details are un-confirmed), one of whom attacked him with a knife, inflicting serious stabbing wounds and injuring him. The attackers fled, and are being pursued at this moment. The victim, aged about 58, was taken conscious by MDA ambulance to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem with stab wounds to the upper body and trauma injuries to the head from being hit by a hurled rock. [Info source: Israel National News]
• Just before 10:00 am this morning, a Palestinian Arab passing through Tapuah Junction in Samaria was stopped for questioning by Border Police and was found to have a concealed knife on his person. There's an understandable reluctance to accept 'explanations' these days, and he was promptly arrested and taken in for questioning. [Info source: Israel National News]
• Around 1:30 pm today (Sunday), Israeli security forces foiled yet another stabbing attack, this time at a checkpoint in Hebron adjacent to the ancient Tomb of the Patriarchs. The attacker, a Palestinian Arab woman who pulled a knife at the site, was shot and died of her injuries. She failed in inflicting harm on the Israelis at the site. Hers will not be the last such attempt. [Info source: Times of Israel] For the record, the unsuccessful and thwarted stabbing attack is reported in a sadly familiar way by the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency today: "Israeli border police shot and killed a Palestinian women in Hebron city near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the southern occupied West Bank, witnesses said." True and factual, but incomplete, entirely free of meaningful context and calculated to mislead. 
• Early this morning, police arrested an Arab male traveling on an inter-city bus who was overheard saying he intended to become a shahid, or martyr. He had boarded the bus on Route 90 near Kibbutz Gesher, several kilometers south of Tiberias. When the bus reached Tiberias, he was arrested, and removed. Police then found a knife and a kippa (Jewish-style skull-cap) in his possession. But after interrogation, the police released him, issuing a statement that they were satisfied he had not been planning to carry out a terror attack.
• Important revelations arising from the fatal attack (one Israeli killed, 10 injured) at Be'er Sheva's central bus station exactly a week ago (on Sunday October 18, 2015), carried out by Muhanad Al-Aqabi (also writtem Al-Okabi), 21, an Israeli citizen from Hura. It now emerges from the ongoing enquiry that Al-Aqabi, who was killed by security personnel in the course of his attack, had maintained contact with terrorists in the service of Hamas prior to mounting the terror assault. Israel National News reports today that he had images of Hamas terrorists, weapons and other materials on his mobile phone. The new data discovered by police indicates the attack was planned with Hamas.
• Around 5:15 pm, according to an unpublished report. there was another stabbing attack at Tapuah Junction, the second of the day. The victim suffered stab wounds to the chest, causing him serious-to-critical injuries. The attacker fled and we assume is being pursued. (We see that Times of Israel is reporting on a stabbing at about the same time, but at Ariel Junction, near the Samarian city of Ariel. For the moment, we assume the two reports are referring to the same attack.)

The day goes on.

16-Sep-15: Yet another stabbing attack on Israelis foiled

Things are slightly less heated in and around Jerusalem's Temple Mount today after three straight days of rioting by Arabs. The deployment of additional police in the area may have contributed to making a difference.

But against that background of escalating violence by Palestinian Arabs against Israelis, there has been another stabbing attack, and Tapuah Junction in Israel's Samaria district is once again the location. Fortunately, there is a happy ending.

Times of Israel says a Palestinian man was arrested this morning (Wednesday) after unsuccessfully attempting to stab Border Police officers working at the site. The Palestinian Arab male, estimated to be in his 20s and from Nablus, pulled out a dagger as police carried out a routine search near Tapuah Junction. Their suspicions were well-founded, it appears. His attempt to inflict injury or worse was rebuffed and when he attempted to flee, he was quickly apprehended.

Unlike the last Tapuah Junction knifing attack ["17-Aug-15: Three knifing attacks on Israelis in past 48 hours"], today's terror-minded attacker with a passion to stab is still alive, and likely to remain that way so long as he is in Israeli custody. He is currently being interrogated by security forces. Tapuah Junction, located south of Nablus in the central West Bank, has been the site of numerous attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces. (Click for previous reports via this blog.)

17-Aug-15: Three knifing attacks on Israelis in past 48 hours

The man in the stretcher, being taken to an Israeli hospital
by an Israeli ambulance crew, is the Arab attacker who
asked for a glass of water and then stabbed the IDF serviceman
as he turned his back to go get it for him [Image Source]

There have been three serious knifing attacks on Israelis in the past two days.

This past Saturday, an Arab approached one of the soldiers manning, or patrolling close to. a busy checkpoint on Route 443, the highway connecting Jerusalem via Modi'in with the Coastal Plain. (Route 443 has been in the news several times this month because of Arab-on-Israeli violence.) Pretending to need the soldier's assistance in getting a drink of water, the attacker, according to AP, pounced on the soldier as he turned his back to go take care of helping the thirsty traveler, and stabbed him, causing light injuries. The soldier managed to draw his gun and shoot the knifer, wounding him in the shoulder. The attacker was taken away for interrogation. He is reported to have said that the knife attack came in the wake of an argument he had had with his own father.

A second knifing attack happened later that day, Saturday. Associated Press says a Palestinian Arab, Rafeq Ahmad al-Taj, 21, of Nablus walked up to Israeli police officers conducting a routine security check and stabbed one in the back with a knife, moderately wounding him. Another officer, standing nearby, opened fire and killed the attacker.

The third happened early this afternoon, Monday, at Tapuah Junction, scene of many previous terror attacks on Israelis both in uniform and not. The attacker, according to an Israel National News report, approached several Border Patrol officers and attempted to stab one of them with a large knife. He was was shot and died of his injuries soon after.

The ordinariness of these casual-seeming acts of attempted murder by ordinary-seeming attackers is chilling.

02-Dec-14: Israeli victim of yesterday's attack-by-driver has died of his injuries

From The Jewish Press:

Avraham Ben-Zion, the 68 year old Jewish man seriously wounded in yesterday’s vehicle attack at Tzomet Alon (Highway 505 East of Migdalim/Eastern Shomron) has died in Beilinson Hospital. The family is donating his organs to those in need. The police and IDF are still investigating yesterday’s attack.

We reported on the attack yesterday: "01-Dec-14: Terror-attack-by-driver... again". Earlier today, Israel National News reported that

Police and IDF forces arrested three people last night (Monday)  in the southern Samarian Palestinian Arab village of Kablan, suspected of being involved in the hit-and-run of a middle-aged man yesterday afternoon at the Alon intersection in Samaria. The man, in his 50's, suffered serious injuries, and had to be intubated before being evacuated from the scene by helicopter. The truck driver fled the area. At this point, the IDF has said that they have not excluded any line of inquiry, and the suspects have been handed over to Shabak (Shin-Bet, Israel Intelligence Agency) for interrogation.

We are not aware of any charges being laid against the three or anyone else at this stage.

UPDATE Wednesday 3-Dec-14: And now it's reported that a gag order has been imposed by a court at the request of the police.

01-Dec-14: Terror-attack-by-driver... again

Ynet has this Israel Police photo from the scene of the attack
in the Samaria (Shomron) district

It's been a bad day for acts of terror: a stabbing attack and an attempted stabbing this morning [01-Dec-14: Knifing attacks north and south this morning"] and now:

According to Ynet, an Israeli man in his sixties is seriously injured after being run down by a hit-and-run driver today. He was found unconscious and bleeding in the middle of the road. An eyewitness says a sedan struck him and then drove off in the direction of Tapuah Junction where one of this morning's two knifing attacks took place. Police are conducting a search. He was rushed to the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva by IDF helicopter, and is being treated there. The ambulance people of Magen David Adom (MDA) Yarkon branch say he has head injuries and has still not regained consciousness. 

Attacks by terror-intent drivers on Israeli civilians have been proliferating in recent weeks.

UPDATE December 16, 2014: "A carjacking that went awry was behind the death of an Israeli man who was found in a critical condition beside a West Bank road two weeks ago, according to new details of the case that were permitted for publication on Tuesday. Three Palestinians from the village of Kfar Akraba, who were arrested shortly after the incident, confessed to the crime during questioning by the Shin Bet General Security Services. Police have since reenacted the incident together with the suspects." ["West Bank hit-and run-killing was botched carjacking | The Times of Israel]

01-Dec-14: Knifing attacks north and south this morning

Gush Etzion Junction this morning: scene of the stabbing [Image Source]

Israel National News is the source of what we know about two Monday morning terror attacks.

Around 8 this morning, a Border Police officer manning a surveillance position right next to a security checkpoint in Tapuah Junction noticed a hooded Arab man approaching and, for reasons understandably never articulated, became suspicious. He called to the pedestrian to halt and was ignored. In other places, where other rules prevail, those circumstances might be the prelude to a shoot-first-ask-questions-later encounter. 

As so often happens in this country, it went differently and the young Arab is alive to tell his admirers about it... some day. 

In accordance with protocol, the security officer radioed to the checkpoint commander for instructions, presumably using not too many words. The commander and another soldier came running immediately. Their report is that the young Arab kept on coming, and stopped only when they cocked their guns. He resisted a pat-down and was subdued with moderate force. He also resisted their efforts to get to know him better, even after a knife was found in his clothing. He had no ID with him, which in these parts has consequences. He is now with the Shin Bet - alive, and likely to see at least his approaching 19th birthday. It's questionable whether that is a courtesy he intended to reciprocate to the disciplined young service-men and -woman who stand at the checkpoints.

In the past hour (mid-morning, Monday), there's word of a second knifing attempt with more serious immediate consequences. An Arab terrorist, evidently a young female, walked up to Gush Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem and tried to stab an Israeli civilian. She was shot in the attempt, and INN says she is in critical condition. 

Yedioth Aharonoth reports the terrorist was female and according to the ambulance people at Magen David Adom (MDA) there is another lightly wounded person at the scene. The scene of the terror attack is close to the one where a young mother, Dalia Lemkus, was murdered by an Arab terrorist three weeks ago.

3-Jun-14: Yet another terror attack at Tapuah Junction tonight

From Israel National News

A terrorist opened fire on Monday night towards IDF soldiers at the Tapuach Junction in Samaria, near the city of Ariel. The soldiers returned fire and killed the terrorist. One soldier was lightly wounded in the incident and was treated at the scene by army medics. Monday night’s attack comes just three days after security forces apprehended an Arab terrorist wearing a bomb belt at the same location.

We wrote about the previous attack ["30-May-14: Has a Palestinian Arab human bomb just been intercepted en route to an attack?"]