Terrorist killed trying to stab soldier in Gush Etzion

No Israelis were injured in the attack.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Updated: NOVEMBER 6, 2015 04:42
Site of attempted stabbing, Etzion Junction, November 5, 2015 (photo credit: TZOFEN MATZAV)
Site of attempted stabbing, Etzion Junction, November 5, 2015
(photo credit: TZOFEN MATZAV)
A Palestinian man who drew a knife and attempted to stab a soldier at the Gush Etzion junction was shot dead by fellow soldiers on Thursday.
Infantry from the Shimshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade opened fire after seeing the attacker lunge at them with the knife. No soldiers were hurt in the incident.
“T.” (full name withheld), a soldier in the Shimshon Battalion, shot and killed the would-be attacker on Thursday, repeating his quick reaction of last week, when he killed two terrorists as they tried to stab soldiers at the same junction.
In Thursday’s incident, T.
said he and fellow soldiers spotted the suspect acting suspiciously and called on him to cross the road and approach them.
“When he arrived, he pulled out a knife with the intention of stabbing my friend who was with me. I cocked my firearm and shot him.”
In light of the ongoing terrorist stabbing attacks on Israelis in Gush Etzion, the IDF doubled the number of soldiers securing the area last week.
Military sources told The Jerusalem Post that the move is part of a wider effort by the Judea and Samaria Division and Central Command to protect civilians.
“We are preparing for this wave of terrorism to become prolonged, and we are preparing for the potential of an escalation,” one of the sources said. “We are adjusting the way we activate forces to deal with knife attacks.”
Col. Roman Gofman, commander of the Gush Etzion Brigade, issued instructions to step up patrols around a local gas station and at other spots prone to knife attacks.
Concrete blocks have been set up around bus stops and hitchhiking posts, and cameras, which dot the area, help the IDF investigate incidents and monitor the security situation.
The Gush Etzion junction is an area where Jews and Palestinians frequently interact, making it a terrorism hot spot in the West Bank.
Not long after Thursday’s attack, a spokesman for Hadassah-University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem said that a 20-year-old Border Police officer who was seriously wounded in a ramming attack on Wednesday on Route 60 in the southern West Bank is still fighting for his life in critical condition.
T said that during a previous attempted stabbing attack last week, he shot two other terrorists.
In light of the continuous spate of Palestinian knife attacks on Israelis in the Gush Etzion junction area, the IDF doubled the number of units securing the area last week.
Military sources told The Jerusalem Post that the move is part of a wider effort by the Judea and Samaria Division and Central Command to protect civilians from knife terrorism plaguing the Gush Etzion junction very frequently in recent weeks.
“We are preparing for this wave of terrorism to become prolonged, and we are preparing for the potential of an escalation,” one of the sources said. “We are adjusting the way we activate forces to deal with knife attacks.”
Col. Roman Gofman, commander of the IDF’s Gush Etzion Brigade, issued instructions to step up patrols around a gas station in the area, and at other spots prone to knife attacks.
Concrete blocks have been set up around bus stops and hitchhiking posts, and cameras, which dot the area, help the IDF investigate past incidents and evaluate the security situation.
The Gush junction is an area where Jews and Palestinians frequently interact, making it a terrorism hot spot in the West Bank.