Attempted terror stabbing in Jewish community in Samaria thwarted

Palestinian from nearby town admits to Shin Bet investigators that he intended to stab Jewish residents.

By World Israel News Staff

A terrorist armed with a knife was stopped while attempting to breach the security fence around the Jewish settlement of Beit El.

A Palestinian man from the nearby town of Silwad tried to climb over Beit El’s fence on Saturday morning, the first full day of the Passover holiday, Channel 13 reported.

The community’s security coordinators responded swiftly, firing a warning shot into the air and then apprehending the man.

Israel’s Shin Bet security agency took him in for questioning, and he told investigators that he had intended to carry out a terror attack in Beit El.

Located north of Jerusalem and close to the city of Ramallah, Beit El has been targeted by Palestinian terrorists multiple times in recent years.

In March 2021, IDF troops arrested three Palestinians who had been throwing Molotov cocktails at houses in the community.

Two months later, in May 2021, three IDF soldiers were wounded by gunfire in Beit El during clashes with Palestinians in nearby towns.

In 2019, a seven-year-old boy from Beit El was wounded in a shooting attack that originated from Dura al-Qaraa, a nearby Palestinian town. No suspects were arrested for the shooting.

Saturday’s attempted stabbing attack comes after a spate of deadly stabbing and shooting incidents perpetrated by Arab-Israeli and Palestinian terrorists. Within the past three weeks, 12 Israeli citizens and two foreign workers were murdered in terror incidents — marking the deadliest period in Israel since 2006.

On Sunday in Jerusalem, local Arabs threw stones at a municipal bus en route to the Western Wall, wounding five passengers.

Also on Sunday, Arabs assaulted Jews in the Old City in a brutal, unprovoked attack, which was filmed and widely distributed on Arabic-language social media sites.

Police later arrested six people for throwing heavy stones off rooftops in the Muslim Quarter. They were aiming at Jews and Israeli security forces passing on the street below.