Soldier stabbed in suspected terror attack; sustains mild to moderate wounds

In a suspected terror attack, an Israeli Defense Forces soldier suffered light to moderate stab wounds Sunday after being knifed while getting off a Ramat Gan bus.

Magen David Adom emergency services paramedics were called to the scene and the police have launched an investigation.

The incident took place on a Dan number 67 bus – a double articulated bus – in central Ramat Gan, around 5:45 pm. According to eyewitness accounts the assailant, "who looked like an Arab," fled the scene on foot and a manhunt was subsequently launched by security forces.

Scene of the attack (Photo: Yaron Brener)

Police officials said Sunday night that investigators were increasingly convinced that the attack was nationalistically motivated due to the fact that the soldier did not have a criminal background.

However, the investigation is also focusing on the assailant's conduct, which was uncharacteristic of terror attacks. According to eyewitness accounts, he did not shout out anything before stabbing the soldier, and did not attempt to attack anyone else.

'We received a call about a stabbing and were dispatched to the scene," a MDA paramedic told Ynet. "We found a 20-year-old soldier with a jugular stab wound, stretching all the way to his ear. He was fully conscious. We stopped the bleeding and took him to the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv."

Dr. Pini Halperin, head of emergency medicine at Sourasky, said Sunday night that the soldier was "doing well" and that his life was not in danger.

According to one of the passengers on the bus, the soldier was sitting on the back of the bus, when he suddenly began screaming. "We looked at him and saw that he had a knife stuck in his throat," she said.

"People began yelling "Stop! Stop!' so I did, and then I saw the soldier running in one direction and the suspect in another," Shalom Barda, the bus driver, told Ynet. "Then I saw someone try to get on the bus through the back door, which is forbidden, so I closed it manually.

"It's lucky, because if I had waited for it to close automatically, he (the suspect) would have been able to get back on the bus. The soldier was clearly in shock and he started running. I probably would have done the same."

Major-General David Biton, of the Dan Subdistrict Police held a police briefing Sunday, recapping he event: "Around 5:45 pm a report came it saying a soldier who was on the number 67 bus in Ramat Gan, on Abba Hilell street was stabbed in the neck, that he was mildly hurt and doing okay.

"The description of the suspect fits one of a minority, but we have nothing else to indicate that this was a terror attack. The motive is still unclear.

"According to the soldier, he was getting off the bus when the suspect stabbed him in the neck. It appears that suspect road the but. He got off the bus and fled on foot. We have large police forces canvassing the area looking for him."