An IDF colonel in the reserves shot and neutralized a Palestinian terrorist who rammed his car into two teenagers and then tried to stab them Tuesday near Jerusalem, officials said.
The attack occurred at the Al-Khader intersection on Highway 60, known as the tunnel road, south of the capital. A 15-year-old boy was severely wounded with head and limb injuries and taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. A 16-year-old was moderately hurt and evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, medics said.
Col. (res.) Hezi Nehama neutralizes the terrorist
The moment of the attack
The terrorist, identified by Palestinians as Mahdi Dirieh, 33, from the nearby village of Beit Fajjar, rammed his car into three Israeli youths waiting at a roadside bus stop. Police said one teen escaped unharmed. The assailant then emerged from his vehicle with a knife before being shot by Col. (res.) Hezi Nehama, who happened to be passing through the intersection with his personal firearm. Dirieh was severely wounded in the shooting.
“I heard a boom about 20 meters away,” Nehama told Ynet. “People shouted, ‘He has a knife!’ I yelled for him to stop, but he kept running toward me. I fired at his legs, he kept advancing, so I aimed at his center mass. Then he fell.”
Police commander Moshe Pinchi said the suspect confessed to carrying out the attack during an initial field interrogation. Security forces blocked off entrances and exits from surrounding villages while combing the area. The army said troops were conducting searches and sealing off nearby roads.
First responders described scenes of panic. “When we arrived, there was chaos,” said Magen David Adom paramedic Moshe Benita. “We saw the car with its windshield smashed and two teenagers lying injured nearby. One was semi-conscious with serious injuries. We gave lifesaving treatment and rushed him to the hospital.”
Nehama, who served more than 25 years in the IDF, previously commanded the Givati reconnaissance unit, the Alexandroni and Menashe brigades, and held senior positions in the Givati Brigade and the officers' training school. In recent years, he has been a vocal critic of military leadership, accusing it of mismanaging the war in Gaza.
The Al-Khader junction lies near the tunnel checkpoint on the main southern approach to Jerusalem. The attack came amid heightened tensions across the West Bank, where Israeli forces have been carrying out near-daily raids since the Gaza war began.