Afula stabber indicted for attempted murder
20-year-old West Bank native Tariq Yahya tells police he wanted to stab a Jew or soldier after watching videos online
The Nazareth District Court on Monday indicted a West Bank Palestinian for attempted murder over a stabbing attack in the Galilee city of Afula earlier this month.
Tariq Abd el-Fattah Yahya, a resident of the Jenin-area town of Arka, was also charged with illegally carrying a weapon as well as being in Israel against the law.
On October 8, the 20-year-old Yahya knifed an Israel Defense Forces soldier in the center of the city, moderately wounding him, in the fourth attack of that day.
Yahya told police he had entered Israel in September and was living in the Israeli Arab city of Umm al-Fahm when he saw a social-media clip calling for attacks on Jews. He then bought a knife and made his way to Afula to stab a Jew or soldier, according to a police statement.
Before he left on his mission, police said Yahya wrote a message to family members on Facebook asking for their forgiveness if he did not return.
The indictment also revealed that Yahya had an accomplice, an Israeli citizen and resident of Umm al-Fahm, who drove him to Afula in exchange for NIS 150 ($40). He was charged with transporting an illegal resident.
After stabbing IDF soldier Dvir Peretz, Yahya was stopped and wrestled to the ground by a passerby. Police were called in to keep angry citizens from beating him as he lay on the ground.
The 20-year-old soldier was evacuated to the Emek Medical Center in moderate condition with a single stab wound to the chest.
On Monday, doctors at the Afula hospital said Peretz was recovering well, and that he could be released on Tuesday.
Peretz’s mother, Shoshi, recalled the attack in an interview with Israel Radio on Monday. “He was crossing the road to come talk to me at my store while talking to his girlfriend on the phone.
“She was telling him to make sure to look right and left before crossing, and he reassured her that everything was fine. But then, all of the sudden, he started screaming ‘I’m being stabbed,'” she said.
The attack was the fourth stabbing of that day, following assaults on Israelis in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Kiryat Arba in the West Bank. No one was killed in any of the attacks, although at least seven were injured.