Barkan terrorist shot dead in Nablus raid

Palestinian who killed two Israelis in a terrorist attack at the Barkan Industrial Zone on October 7, was shot dead by a Border Police counter terrorism unit Wednesday night. 

By World Israel News Staff and TPS

Ashraf Naalwa, the 23-year-old  Palestinian who brutally killed two Israelis in a terrorist attack at the Barkan Industrial Park on October 7, was shot dead by a Border Police counter terrorism unit overnight during a gunfight as they attempted to arrest him in an apartment in Nablus, northern Samaria, where he had been hiding out.

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said Naalwa had been tracked down following an intensive intelligence effort with the Yamam counter terrorism unit, together with IDF forces and that he was armed and had planned to carry out another terrorist attack.

On October 7,  Naalwa, from the town of Shweika in northern Samaria killed two Israelis – 28-year-old Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel and 35-year-old Ziv Hajbi – at the Alon metal recycling factory  located in the Barkan Industrial Park.

Naalwa who had previously worked at the factory for seven months, forced a Palestinian cleaner to tie up his victims at gunpoint, and then shot them both at point blank range. He later shot and injured a third employee.

He had been on the run until now.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said: “I salute the Yamam unit that together with the IDF and Shin Bet closed the account with the terrorist who killed Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi and also the terrorist involved in the Ofra shooting … We will reach every terrorist, in any place he is hiding.”

The first victim, Levengrond- Yehezkel. was the mother of a year-and-a-half old baby boy. She began working at the industrial part a year ago. She last saw her baby when she left him off at the daycare center the morning of the attack. She is survived by her husband Gai, her baby boy Kai, her parents and her sister Shahar.

The second victim, Hajbi, was father to three children. His family donated his organs to save others.

A third victim, a 54-year-old woman, recovered from her injuries.

Home to some 160 factories employing 10,000 workers, 7,000 of whom are Palestinians, the Barkan Industrial Park had been relatively untouched by terrorism. The last attack at the area occurred in 2015 when a Palestinian terrorist stabbed and injured two security guards at the industrial park. That terrorist was shot and killed at the scene.

Late last night, IDF forces also shot and killed one of the two terrorists who carried out a drive-by shooting at the Ofra junction earlier this week in which several people were hurt, including a pregnant woman whose baby was delivered but later died.