Two others injured outside settlement; attack second of kind Monday
A 14-year-old girl was killed and two others were injured in a stabbing attack at the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut Monday afternoon, in the second attack of its kind in a day. Police said the attack occurred at a hitchhiking post at the entrance to the settlement, in the Etzion block south of Jerusalem. Two people, in their 30s and 40s, sustained light to moderate wounds. The stabber was shot by a guard on duty at the site, police said.
Earlier on Monday, an Israel Defense Forces soldier was stabbed near a train station in Tel Aviv. If confirmed to be a terror attack at the Haganah train station in Tel Aviv, Monday's incident will be the fourth in the past few weeks. "From initial investigations it emerges that the incident was a terrorist knife attack," the Israel Police reported via their Twitter feed.
Emergency services treated the soldier at the site before evacuating him to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, in critical condition. The assailant, who police said was a Palestinian who had entered Israel illegally, was apprehended and held for questioning. Palestinian sources told the local Palestinian media that his name is Nur a-Din Hashiya, from the Askar refugee camp in Nablus, Haaretz reports.
Police in Israel had been on alert for some time due to the recent incidents in Jerusalem. Following the attack in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat urged residents not to cancel Tel Aviv trips. “This is the way we fight terrorism,” Barkat wrote on Twitter.
Violent protests in northern Arab communities raged overnight Sunday, with masked rioters burning tires, and throwing stones and petrol bombs at security forces stationed in the towns of Turan, Shfaram and Fordis.
Police said they expected more rioting, following the late Friday shooting of a 22-year-old-man by police in Kafr Kanna. Channel 10 reported that large police forces had deployed throughout the predominately Arab region of Wadi Ara in northern Israel and around the restive town outside Nazareth.