A Palestinian wielding a knife stabbed two Israelis in a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and drove their car to flee the scene. He stole it and crashed it into a car near the highway. A third Israeli was killed, officials said.
He also wounded three Israelis in an attack on the Ariel settlement. A Palestinian was shot dead by an Israeli soldier while trying to flee the crash site.
According to Zaka’s ambulance service, three of his injured were in critical condition and were being treated in a hospital.
This is the latest attack in a string of Israeli-Palestinian violence this year, including nighttime Israeli arrest attacks in which Palestinian raiders targeted Israeli civilians and fueled unrest in the occupied territories.
Palestinians first stabbed several Israelis at the entrance to the industrial area of the settlement, then went to a nearby gas station, where they stabbed others, according to the Israeli army. was stolen, deliberately crashed into another car, and fled the scene on foot. The military said 4,444 troops had searched the area for other suspects. Israeli media identified the three victims as Mordechai Ashkenazi, 59; Tamir Avichai, 50; and Michael Radigin, 36. A video of him aired on
Israeli television appeared to show the alleged attacker driving down a highway and falling to the ground after being shot. The Palestinian Ministry of Health later confirmed that Mohammad Souf, 18, from the nearby village of Hares, was the murdered attacker.
The attacker’s uncle, Marwan Souf, told Palestinian state news agency Wafa that Israeli security forces had raided his family’s home in Hares and interrogated 15 relatives. He also said the military had taken measurements of the house in preparation for demolition. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to IDF spokesman Ran Kochavi, Souf has a work permit to settle. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Gaza’s rulers, the militant group Hamas, described it as “heroic”.
Hundreds of Hamas supporters held a demonstration in the besieged Gaza Strip on Tuesday in tribute to the attack. In several places in the besieged Gaza Strip, Palestinians threw sweets when they heard the news.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid sent his condolences to the families of those killed in the attack and said that Israel “fights terrorism continuously and with full force.”
“Our security forces work 24/7 to protect Israeli citizens and damage terrorist infrastructure everywhere and at all times,” he said.
An increase in Israeli-Palestinian violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year has killed at least 25 people on the Israeli side and more than 130 Palestinians, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006.
Israel says its almost nightly raids in the West Bank, which began after 19 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks last spring, are necessary to dismantle militant networks at a time when Palestinian security forces are unable or unwilling to do so.
Palestinians say the crackdown has undermined their security forces and is aimed at consolidating Israel’s 55-year, indefinite occupation. Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested in such raids, many of them under so-called administrative detention, which Israel can hold without trial or prosecution.
Israel conquered the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East War. The Palestinians are seeking these areas for their desired independent state.
