‘Murder in his eyes’: Victim recounts brutal Memorial Day terror attack

“I realized that unless someone came out now, I would be no more,” said the 62-year-old victim.

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

The 62-year-old woman who survived a brutal Memorial Day terror attack in Kfar Saba told her story Sunday morning after being released from the hospital on Friday.

In an interview on Army Radio with Yishai Shnerb, the woman described how she was attacked by 19-year-old Muhammad Risha, an Arab from the city of Tulkarm in Samaria, and how she was bravely rescued by an anonymous passerby.

“I waited at a bus stop in the direction of the Kfar Saba industrial zone. He was behind me. He arrived with a red sweatshirt and a hat,” the woman said of her attacker.

“I asked him if there are buses because I had waited by myself for a long time, and then he mumbled from behind me. It appeared he was an Arab guy. I only asked one question: if there are buses. And he mumbled, ‘There are buses,'” she said.

“After a few seconds of quiet, I suddenly got hit on the head. I didn’t even see his punches. He was a muscular man. I was hit on the head like a hammer with intensity and very quickly. I turned around in his direction and tried to get his hands down.”

“He had murder in his eyes, a look of madness,” she recounted. “I saw a look of hatred, something crazy, and murder in his eyes. He did not come to talk but to kill.”

“I saw death in those seconds,” she recalled. “The punches caused me to bleed from the head. I saw that I had no chance to stand against him. He could kill me in a second by banging so hard on my head.”

That’s when the woman realized that she must escape. “It was crowded with vehicles and there was city construction along the road. I got to the middle of the road and stopped all the traffic, and I shouted ‘Help, help!’ and he chased after me.”

“I didn’t feel he had a knife, but I felt hits and punches. He didn’t say anything. He was in a frenzy,” she said.

“I continued toward the middle of the road, and I saw people recording with their cell phones, but not in a hurry. It was a real-time movie. He chased me to murder me. I realized that unless someone came out now, I would be no more.”

“From the left side of my head poured a flood of blood from the stabbings, and from the right side blood also flowed. Then I fell, my systems collapsed,” she said.

“My head turned to see what was happening. I kept trying to take in every bit of information to understand what’s going on. And then from God came a guy out of a van in the opposite lane of traffic, with a white shirt and jeans.”

“With a lot of courage, he understood what was happening. He shot two bullets at him after I fell, wallowing in my own blood. He shot him and neutralized him,” she said.

She then spoke to the man who saved her. “I asked him what’s his name, and he said ‘that doesn’t matter.’ I wanted to thank him, but he told me ‘it’s okay.'”

“He said to me, ‘Here, the knife also fell.’ I turned, and I looked and saw a big butcher knife and there was blood on it. And then I realized that my thinking was correct.”

“He is a true hero,” the woman said, adding, “He restored safety, not only saved me.”

On Friday, IDF soldiers searched the residence of the woman’s attacker, Muhammad Risha, amid clashes with the Arab residents of Tulkarm. Risha was brought before the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court on that day and his arrest was extended for six days. He is reported to be in stable condition.