A combined ramming and stabbing attack in northern Israel on Friday killed a 19-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man and lightly wounded a teenager, authorities said, identifying the assailant as a Palestinian man from the West Bank who entered Israel illegally.
Police said the terrorist, Ahmad Abu al-Rub, a 37-year-old from the northern West Bank town of Qabatiya, began the carnage in the northern city of Beit She’an, where he rammed a 68-year-old pedestrian. First responders said they attempted resuscitation, but the man was pronounced dead shortly afterward.
The scene of the attack near Kibbutz Tel Yosef
(Video: Israel Moshkovitz, from social media)
A short time later, the suspect struck a 16-year-old boy in Beit She’an. The teenager was taken to Afula Hospital with light injuries.
The attacker then drove onto Highway 71 toward the Ein Harod area, where he rammed a vehicle carrying a 19-year-old woman near Kibbutz Tel Yosef, police said. After the collision, the woman fled the car, but the attacker chased her and stabbed her, killing her at the scene. The victim was later identified as Aviv Maor of Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud.
“A terrorist took our daughter. He murdered our daughter,” the victim’s parents said at the scene minutes after the attack. According to suspicion, the attacker had been in Israel for several days and used his employer’s car to carry out the attack.
“The attacker rammed them while they were in a kibbutz vehicle. He hit them, they got out and fled, and he chased her and stabbed her in a ditch,” said the victim’s father.
Emergency responders from Magen David Adom said the report came in at 12:31 p.m. local time, regarding a critically wounded woman on Highway 71 near Tel Yosef and Ein Harod. Paramedics found the woman unconscious and attempted lifesaving treatment but were forced to pronounce her dead at the scene.
Magen David Adom physician Dr. Ravid Pitro and paramedic Fadi Tantouri said: “The victim was lying on the side of the road beyond the separation fence, unconscious and suffering from penetrating injuries to her body. We provided medical treatment, but her condition was critical and we were forced to pronounce her dead.”
From there, the terrorist fled by car toward Afula. The vehicle was stopped near the city, and the attacker was neutralized at the Maonot Junction by a passerby. The attacker was taken to a hospital in moderate condition.
“This was a very serious incident," said Police Commissioner Danny Levy at the scene of the attack at the entrance to Tel Yosef. "Thanks to a security guard, the attack was stopped and the terrorist was neutralized. We are conducting a joint investigation with the Shin Bet. We will pursue and bring everyone involved to justice.” Police said the investigation was continuing at all locations. Highway 71 was closed to traffic in both directions in the Afula area following the attack.
The terrorist is a resident of Qabatiya in the northern Samaria region. Over the past month, the IDF’s Central Command has been operating in northern Samaria as part of Operation Five Stones, during which forces raided hundreds of homes, arrested dozens of suspects and began carrying out home demolitions.
Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the IDF to act forcefully and immediately against Qabatiya. “All terrorists must be located and thwarted, and the terror infrastructure in the village must be struck. Anyone who assists, shelters or backs terrorism will pay the full price,” Katz said.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the attack again demonstrated the urgent need to pass a law imposing the death penalty on terrorists. “Anyone who goes out to carry out a terror attack with the aim of murder must know that the State of Israel will not allow him to continue living and will send him to hell,” he said.
Earlier Friday, a separate attack took place in the West Bank, where an assailant rammed a vehicle into a military car carrying troops near the Adoraim area in the western Hebron hills, the military said. The attacker was arrested and transferred for questioning by Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet.
Four soldiers were injured in the ramming attack and taken to a hospital for treatment. Their injuries were believed to be minor, the military said.