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Stabbing, gun-snatching thwarted on day of Tel Aviv victims’ funerals, terrorist’s brother shot

Attempted gun-snatching, stabbing in Hebron and shooting of Tel Aviv terrorist’s brother – all on one chaotic Sunday. 

By World Israel News Staff

An assailant attempted to snatch a gun from a female soldier standing at the Bat Hadar interchange, near the southern city of Ashkelon, on Sunday evening. He was shot dead.

Israeli police said in a statement that the man was a Jewish citizen of Israel. According to later reports, he had escaped from a mental health facility.

Col. Eliav Elbaz, Brigadier General of the Binyamin Regional Brigade, happened to be driving by the scene when he witnessed the struggle between the soldier and the assailant. Elbaz stopped his car and opened fire, striking and killing the perpetrator.

Paramedics evacuated the soldier to nearby Barzilai Hospital with “light injuries,” a paramedic said.

The attempted gun-snatching marked the latest in a series of attempted attacks on security forces on Sunday.

Several hours earlier, in the afternoon, a Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli Border Police officer at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

Israeli security forces shot the woman dead, and reports indicated that the officer was mildly injured.

Also on Sunday afternoon, IDF troops attempting to arrest the brothers of the Palestinian terrorist who murdered three men and wounded many more in Tel Aviv on Thursday opened fire on their vehicle during a pursuit in Jenin.

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One of the terrorist’s brothers was shot, although footage seen on social media indicated that his injuries were relatively mild.

According to Arabic-language media, he was admitted to a hospital but released after several hours and returned home.

On Sunday morning, in what appeared to be a suicide-by-soldier, a middle-aged Palestinian woman charged Israeli troops near Bethlehem.

Despite repeated warnings to stop running towards the soldiers and several rounds of warning shots fired into the air, the woman refused to stop approaching the troops and was shot in the lower body, in line with military policy.

The woman was not armed, and it’s unclear why she refused to obey the commands and continued towards the troops, despite repeated warnings that she would be shot.

She was later pronounced dead at a Beit Jala hospital.

Also on Sunday, funerals were held for the three victims of the Tel Aviv shooting.