IDF officer murdered in terrorist stabbing attack identified as married father of three

The career IDF officer managed to shoot and kill the terrorist after being mortally wounded in stabbing attack.

By World Israel News Staff

The victim who was murdered in Thursday’s terrorist stabbing attack in southern Israel has been identified as 51-year-old Uri Moyal, a career IDF officer who served as Chief Warrant Officer.

On Thursday, a Gaza-born Israeli-Arab man burst into an Aroma coffee shop at the Beit Kama Junction outside of the Beit Kama kibbutz in southern Israel and stabbed Moyal in the back, throat, and stomach.

Despite being mortally wounded, Moyal managed to fend off his attacker and draw his pistol, shooting and killing the terrorist.

Security camera footage from the scene shows Moyal being stabbed from behind and collapsing, before rising back to his feet and shooting the terrorist.

A resident of the southern town of Dimona, Moyal served as a technology officer at an IDF training base.

Evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba while in critical condition, Moyal eventually succumbed to his wounds and was declared dead at Soroka.

He is survived by his wife and three children.

The terrorist has been identified as 22-year-old Fadi Abu Altayef, a resident of the southern Israeli Bedouin town of Rahat.

Born in Gaza to a Gazan father and Arab-Israeli mother from the Bedouin sector, he received Israeli residency in 2019, after he married an Arab-Israeli woman. His cousin, Ahmed Abu Latif, was killed while serving in the IDF in the southern Gaza Strip.

Thursday’s attack comes a day after two people were wounded in another terrorist stabbing attack, this time at a security checkpoint just south Jerusalem, along Route 60 between the capital and Gush Etzion.

The victims, a 25-year-old male security guard and 19-year-old female soldier, were transported to local hospitals by Magen David Adom paramedics and were listed as being in moderate condition.