Two injured in West Bank stabbing attack
32-year old IDF reservist in moderate condition after being stabbed in face and upper body
An IDF reservist and an Israeli civilian were wounded during a stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian assailant outside the Samaria Territorial Brigade base in the West Bank on Thursday afternoon.
The 32 year-old reservist was moderately wounded after being stabbed in his face and upper body and a 26 year-old Israeli woman was lightly wounded in her leg by shrapnel from friendly fire. Both victims were evacuated to Beilinson Hospital fully conscious, reported Magen David Adom.
According to initial reports in Israeli media, the Palestinian stabbed the reservist who had been standing at a bus stop near Maskit Junction between Har Bracha and Itamar in the Shomron. Soldiers and civilians in the area tried to overcome the assailant, with troops opening fire towards him as he fled the scene, hitting the civilian.
Security forces are in pursuit of the terrorist who was able to escape towards the nearby Palestinian town of Huwara, south of Nablus.
The attack comes just days after Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel, 29, of Rosh Ha’ayin, and Ziv Hagbi, 35, from Rishon Lezion were shot to death by 23 year-old Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na’alwa.
The Border Police’s Counterterrorism Unit (Yamam); troops from the IDF’s elite Duvdevan, Lotar and Oketz units; and Shin Bet forces are participating in the manhunt for Na’alwa, who was also able to flee the scene armed with the weapon he used in the attack.
According to intelligence officers quoted by Israeli media, it is assumed that he is preparing to engage troops in a firefight if he is found.
While there have been significantly less vehicular attacks as well as stabbings and shooting attacks towards IDF forces and Israeli civilians in the West Bank, they remain a significant threat.
Following Thursday’s attack, Yossi Dagan, the head of the West Bank regional council, called on the government to step up security measures in the area, saying in a statement that Israeli residents of the West Bank “are no different from Israeli citizens anywhere else. We won’t accept a ‘trickle’ of terror incidents day after day.”
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel took to Twitter and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene the security cabinet after the attack.
“We must immediately restore deterrence in order to stop the Jewish bloodbath and we must respond with a heavy hand, including the demolition of homes, the expulsion of the terrorists’ families and the cancellation of all the benefits the families of terrorists immediately receive! I demand that the prime minister convene the cabinet immediately and make the right decisions,” he wrote.