‘Mentally ill’ Arab attacks Jew in Samaria, subdued by bystander

The incident could have ended much worse, with serious harm to a woman and child home alone, says attorney.

By World Israel News Staff

A Palestinian man broke into the Ramat Migron outpost, some 14 kilometers (8.6 miles) north of Jerusalem in the Binyamin region of Samaria, and violently attacked a Jewish resident of the community until a bystander managed to subdue him.

The violence began on Thursday afternoon when a Jewish member of the community noticed the unfamiliar Arab man lingering near a residence where a woman and child were home alone.

According to reports in Hebrew-language media, the Migron resident asked the stranger to identify himself.

Rather than doing so, he jumped on the Jew, punching him in the head and body repeatedly.

Eventually, he wrestled the Jewish man to the ground and then began to “strangle” him until a bystander intervened and helped the victim subdue the attacker.

The two Jewish men kept the attacker on the ground until security forces arrived and arrested him. Migron residents said they plan to file a criminal complaint about the attack at the local police station.

“This is an incident that could easily have ended in injury to a woman and children who are now at home during the Passover holiday,” attorney Haim Bleicher, who serves in the NGO Honenu’s Department of Victims of Terrorism, said in a statement.

“During this [Ramadan] period, when every Jew becomes a target for terrorism, the IDF and the [security] authorities must provide security reinforcements for settlements in the region.”

He added that he calls for the Israeli government to punish the attacker “to the fullest extent of the law.”

It is unclear if the assailant was armed at the time he was apprehended, though the lack of a mention of a weapon in media reports suggests that he was not.

A later report indicated that according to an investigation, he is likely mentally ill.

The attack comes on the heels of a spate of deadly Arab terror attacks that swept through Israel’s northern, central, and southern districts during the last week of March.

Also on Thursday, Jerusalem police announced that the city is at its highest possible security alert level, in preparation for an expected influx of some 100,000 Muslims, including from the Palestinian Authority, for Friday Ramadan prayers.