Attempted terror attack at Gush Etzion Junction thwarted
The alleged attacker was holding a cleaver and was shot.
By UDI SHAHAM, TOVAH LAZAROFFIDF soldiers are seen at the Gush Etzion Junction after thwarting a terrorist attack, on January 5, 2021.(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
The IDF thwarted a terror attack at the West Bank's Gush Etzion junction, with a security guard killing a Palestinian man who had thrown a knife at him near the bus stop across from the entrance to the shopping mall on Tuesday.According to an IDF spokesperson unit statement, a security guard that was present at the scene spotted the suspect and together with an IDF soldier started the IDF procedure when encountering a suspect - which includes shooting to the air.The suspect then threw his knife at the security guard, who responded by shooting him and neutralizing him, the IDF said.No other injuries were reported. Following the attack, Israel Police briefly closed route 367 to all traffic.The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health reported that Ahed Abdel Rahman Ekhleel, 25, from the village of Bet Ummar had been killed in the afternoon during an incident with the IDF.Gush Etzion Regional head Shlomo Neeman came to the scene after the incident stating that, “The attempted terror attack finished as it should. Any attempt at carrying out a terror attack in the State of Israel, should end without casualties and with the terrorist dead."He added, "To our enemies we say that they don’t really scare us, and certainly will not weaken the mission of the residents of Judea and Samaria. "The opposite is true: we are here forever," Neeman said as he pledged that Israel would continue to expand and develop the area, which will soon "be a sovereign part of the state."A similar attack type of attack occurred at the junction at the start of January in 2020. The junction has in the past been a target of Palestinian terrorists.In 2018, Israeli-American Ari Fuld, 45, was stabbed to death in the parking lot of the shopping mall, located a short distance away from the scene of the attack.The incident comes amid heightened West Bank violence in the last few weeks.On Sunday, Palestinians threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle, injuring Rivka Teitel, 40, in the head as she drove on Route 465 in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank. She was transferred to Sheba Medical Center, where she successfully underwent surgery for her injury.On December 20, Esther Horgan, 53, a mother of six, was killed while jogging in a forest near her home in the Tal Menashe settlement in the Samaria Region of the West Bank.Accordding to the IDF there were nine stabbing incidents in the West Bank in 2020.Khaled Abu Tomeh contributed to this report.
