fbpx

News

Fatal stabbing attack near Ariel

[ssba]

A 29-year-old resident of Har Bracha was yesterday killed in a stabbing attack at a bus stop outside Ariel.

The assailant is reported to be a 19-year-old Arab Israeli from Jaffa, Abdul Hakim Adel Assi, who has an Israeli identity card.

Security camera footage showed Assi leaving a taxi and crossing the road to approach the bus stop, before stabbing Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal in the chest with two knives. Ben Gal collapsed next to a passing bus, while Assi managed to escape.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that “IDF and GSS forces are now hunting for the murderer or murderers”. Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman posted on Facebook: “It’s just a matter of time; the security forces will settle the score with the murderer”. Kan Radio News reported this morning that there has been a major development in the manhunt, but as of yet the details cannot be disclosed.

Ben Gal was a father of four who taught at the Bnei Akiva and Har Bracha yeshivas in Givat Shmuel. He is the second Israeli killed in a terrorist attack in 2018.

Abdul Hakim Adel Assi was known to Israeli social services as they had offered him assistance after his parents left him.

In a related development, Israeli soldiers shot dead Ahmad Nassar Jarrar yesterday, the suspected ringleader of a terrorist group responsible for a January attack that killed Rabbi Raziel Shevach. The Shin Bet security service confirmed that the dawn raid took place in the West Bank this morning. Israeli media reported that Jarrar emerged from his hiding place and approached soldiers armed with an M16 and carrying explosives.