News
Young girl dies in West Bank terror attack
A Palestinian terrorist has infiltrated the Kiryat Alba settlement near Hebron, entered one of the houses, and fatally stabbed a young girl to death.
The settlement’s private security force was first on the scene, and in the altercation that followed a 30-year-old Israeli man was seriously wounded before the terrorist was killed. Both victims were rushed to hospital in Jerusalem, where Hallel Yafe Ariel, a 13-year-old girl, later died of her injuries.
In other terror related news, an Israeli citizen has been charged with attempting to leave Israel in order to join a terror group, thought to be ISIS. Charges were filed at a court in Haifa against 23-year-old Ibrahim Hassan Agbariyeh, from the northern Arab town of Umm al-Fahm.
According to the indictment, Agbariyeh had been exposed to ISIS videos and other online materials. He apparently attempted to destroy his hard drive before leaving the country.
In May, he flew from Israel to Istanbul, where he boarded a flight to Gaziantep – a Turkish city on the border with Syria. From there, he intended to cross the Syrian border and join ISIS, but was arrested by Turkish authorities before being deported back to Israel. The incident indicates a significant degree of cooperation between Israeli and Turkish security forces even prior to this week’s reconciliation agreement.
It is not the first time that arrests have been made in Israel over ISIS related activity. In December, five people from Nazareth were arrested for plotting ISIS-inspired attacks and two months before that seven Israeli citizens from Arab communities in northern Israel were charged with planning an attack, having undergone training and identified targets.
Several Arab Israelis are also thought to have travelled to Syria via Turkey to fight for ISIS, with one from Umm al-Fahm said to have been killed in a US-led bombing raid in Syria in March. Six Arab Israelis were arrested on suspicion of attempting to join ISIS in November, soon after 23-year-old Israeli citizen Nadaal Salah para-glided into Syria from the Israeli Golan Heights in order to join the terror group.