Bus driver in Tel Aviv stabbing attack recalls struggle with terrorist

Herzl Biton, the driver who fought a Palestinian terrorist during a stabbing attack on a Tel Aviv bus on Wednesday in which 17 people were injured, recalled on Saturday the fierce struggle between the two as the attack was underway.

“I had no choice. I had to save the passengers. He stabbed me while I was driving and then went to the center of the bus and began stabbing passengers,” Biton said in a conversation, aired on Channel 10, with the CEO of the Dan bus company where he works. Biton said he began swerving the bus from side-to-side in order to alert others outside of the ongoing 7:30 a.m. attack; his maneuvering, however, did not prevent the assailant from moving throughout the bus and hurting passengers, he said.

“I had no choice but to bring him back over to me. I slammed on the brakes and he flew towards me like a bird. I then jumped out of the chair, grabbed his left hand and started to spray him with pepper spray,” continued Biton.

The terrorist, Hamza Matrouk from the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem, was resolute in his attack and did not stop after Biton charged him, he said: “I punched him and he punched me back.”

Amidst the struggle with the 23-year-old attacker, Biton, 62, managed to get the doors of the bus open, enabling passengers to flee. “The was a pool of blood next to me and he slipped. He left the bus and started running in the direction of Yitzhak Sadeh street. I got off the bus and started chasing him,” added Biton.

Matrouk chased after passengers and pedestrians following his rampage on the bus, stabbing a woman who escaped the turmoil. He was later shot and apprehended by the police. He remains hospitalized at Wolfson Medical Center in Bat Yam.

On Saturday, a video of the hospitalized Matrouk circulated on social media, in which an unidentified person, wielding a camera phone, walks up to him and tells him to “smile for the camera, you shit.” The incident constituted a serious security breach, as Matrouk is supposed to be under heavy guard as an intelligence asset to the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency). The Shin Bet told Channel 2 the agency was not responsible for Matrouk’s security, blaming police for the breach, who in turn blamed military police.

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Matrouk was reported to have illegally crossed from the West Bank into Israel several days before the attack, and told interrogators that he carried it out in retaliation for Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer and the recent unrest on the Temple Mount. He also said that he was motivated by watching radical Islamic television programs, and spoke of “reaching paradise.”

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Biton, who was in critical condition following the stabbing, underwent life-saving surgery at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where he is currently recuperating.

Rafael Shmuel, the CEO of the Dan bus company that operates Line 40, commended Biton for his actions. “We are very proud of you and all that you have done. A simply heroic act. Have a speedy recovery. All of us here at the Dan family and myself are with you.”