Wrestling with West Bank terrorist: 'He came after me'
Seconds after Dalia Lemkus was stabbed to death, Shay Katz arrived at the scene and confronted the terrorist. 'I looked back and saw he was catching up,' he says.
Yishay Katz, one of the first people at the scene of the deadly knife attack in Gush Etzion on Monday evening, wrestled with the terrorist and sustained wounds in his efforts to overpower him.
Katz initially spotted the terrorist after he had already stabbed and killed Dalia Lemkus, and managed to overcome him with the help of other passers-by. During the scuffle, Katz was lightly wounded and was later hospitalized at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
"At around 4:45 PM, I arrived at the intersection on my way to visit my mother at the hospital. I noticed cars that had stopped and people shouting," said Katz, who is in his 50s.
"I saw the terrorist at the hitchhiking station standing with a knife next to a kneeling young woman. I got out of the car, and started to shout as I approached him. He debated whether to run after me or someone else, and at some point began running after me.
"I turned and started to run to get him away from the area and also so I wouldn't get hurt. I looked back and saw that he was catching up to me. I turned and struggled with him. He slashed me on the cheek and waist, and then a man arrived who sprayed him with gas. He apparently realized that he would have a hard time fighting both of us, so he returned to the hitchhiking station and started chasing someone else.
"The security guard began to struggle with him there and managed to grab the hand holding the knife. Another guard arrived on the scene. I told him to shoot the terrorist but to be careful not to hit the first guard, who was still struggling with him. As soon as they separated from each other, he neutralized the terrorist."
Around 4:30 PM, the terrorist stabbed Lemkus, 26, to death as she stood near the the bus station outside Alon Shvut, not far from the Gush Etzion intersection. He lightly wounded two others, who were taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem and Shaare Zedek medical centers. The terrorist was shot by a guard at the entrance to the community.
The terrorist, Maher al-Hashlamun of Hebron, was associated with Islamic Jihad and previously served five years in prison in 2000-2005 for throwing a Molotov cocktail at IDF soldiers.
Based on initial evidence, Monday's incident began as a vehicular attack. Al-Hashlamun's car collided with the bollards at the bus station, after which he exited the vehicle and stabbed his victims.
The victim in Gush Etzion was the tenth to die in a terror attack originating in East Jerusalem or the West Bank in the span of six months, double the number of total Israeli victims in the whole of 2013. In addition to the dead, dozens more have been seriously wounded, among them right-wing activist Yehuda Glick, shot by an Islamic Jihad militant in Jerusalem two weeks ago.
