Manhunt for terrorists after 2 IDF soldiers stabbed in West Bank

Terrorists abscond after attack, IDF sweeping area for them.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: MARCH 3, 2016 01:06
Shomron Brigade Commander Colonel Shai Kalper on the scene near Har Bracha. (photo credit: IDF)
Shomron Brigade Commander Colonel Shai Kalper on the scene near Har Bracha.
(photo credit: IDF)
A manhunt is under way in Samaria for two Palestinians who stabbed two soldiers at a guard post some 2 km. away from the West Bank settlement of Har Bracha on Wednesday evening.
Two Magen David Adom ambulances evacuated the soldiers to The Rabin Medical Center – Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva.
One was stabbed in the shoulder and was listed in moderate condition. The other suffered light facial wounds.
Har Bracha residents were asked to stay in their homes for a short while around 7 p.m.
Confusion initially surrounded the incident, because the nearby Yitzhar settlement went on alert at the same time fearing an infiltration.
The residents of Yitzhar were also briefly asked to stay in their homes until it was determined that no Palestinian had entered the settlement.
Early on Wednesday morning an Israeli in the Eli settlement opened the door to his home to find two teenage Palestinian assailants waiting to attack him with wooden sticks and a knife.
“I opened the door with a satchel in my hand and I saw the two [teenagers] wearing dark clothing and wooden sticks in their hands. They jumped on me and pushed their way into the house,” said Roi Harrell who lives in the West Bank settlement.
“I fought with them inside the house. They got close to a bedroom,” Harrell said as he described the 7 a.m. attack in which he was lightly wounded for Army Radio.
“After a few minutes I was able to push them back outside even as they were hitting me with sticks,” Harrell said.
Then he locked the door. Harrell told his children who had woken up to stay their room. His wife called emergency services and tried to stop the bleeding from his head wound.
Security services arrived almost immediately, he said, adding that it took another half-an-hour for them to find the two assailants.
The two assailants had hidden in the yard of a ritual bath (mikvah) on that street. When they say saw soldiers pass them, them came out and attempted to stab them.
The soldiers shot and killed them.
Noam Amir contributed to this report.