News
Israeli border policeman stabbed, Palestinian attacker shot dead
In the latest in a string of knife attacks, a Palestinian man yesterday stabbed an Israeli border policeman at the Tapuah Junction in the West Bank and was subsequently shot dead.
The attacker, named as 25-year-old Mahmad Amsha from near Jenin, is reported to have approached border policemen manning a checkpoint and requested water as he felt unwell. When he was asked to further approach the servicemen, Amsha produced a knife and attacked them. He was quickly shot and killed by another border policeman. An IDF statement said, “The officer was lightly injured and managed to fight off the assailant. The forces on site responded immediately, firing towards the attacker.”
Yesterday’s incident comes after two almost identical attacks over the weekend. On Saturday morning at an IDF checkpoint near Beit Oron on the 443 highway, between Modi’in and Jerusalem, a Palestinian attacker asked one of the soldiers for water. While the soldier turned to comply with the request, he was stabbed in the upper body. The assailant was shot by another soldier, apprehended and taken for medical treatment. The incident took place not far from a petrol station where last Sunday, an Israeli civilian filling his car was stabbed in the forecourt by a Palestinian.
On Saturday evening, a border policeman was stabbed at a checkpoint near Nablus in the direction of the Palestinian village of Huwara. The attacker, 16-year-old Rafik Kamal al-Taj, apparently approached a group of servicemen before stabbing one of them in the back. He was quickly and fatally shot by another border policeman.
The recent spate of stabbings is not thought to be the work of organised terror groups. During the past several months, there have been numerous incidents of Palestinian individuals, seemingly of their own accord, attacking Israeli civilians and servicemen with vehicles and knives. However, terror cells were recently apprehended for the shooting and murder of two Israelis in the West Bank earlier this summer, with seven suspects indicted yesterday over the killings.