IDF reservist stabbed, moderately wounded by Palestinian in West Bank gas station
Stabber, named as Rami Hamze Ballut, said to be resident of town of Rantis who identified with Hamas and held a work permit for an Israeli settlement
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A 49-year-old IDF reservist was stabbed on Sunday by a Palestinian attacker at a gas station near the West Bank’s Rantis checkpoint.
The suspect was later arrested by IDF troops, and the reservist was said to be moderately wounded, and was taken to hospital for further treatment.
According to the IDF, the assailant fled after the stabbing, and was detained a short while later by troops in the nearby town of Rantis, not far from the Israeli city of Elad.
Security camera footage from the gas station shows the reservist paying at the counter when the assailant runs up from behind and stabs him. The attacker then flees, with the soldier appearing to chase after him.
The soldier, later named as Cpt. Manny Kalcheim, a father of seven children, said he managed to shoot at the fleeing attacker after being stabbed, although the stabber succeeded in getting away.
In a video statement from the hospital, Kalcheim said he was on his way home for reserve duty when he stopped at the gas station: “When I was at the cash register, I felt a strong blow behind me, and I saw someone fleeing fom the store. I chased him and shot toward him, and I apparently wounded him.”
מתקרב לחייל בקופה, דוקר אותו בגב ונמלט: תיעוד הפיגוע בתחנת הדלק בשומרון. המחבל נתפס ברנתיס@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/RT9wQx3noo
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) December 17, 2023
Kalcheim said that he felt a sense of security “as an officer with a weapon who could respond, but any other resident could have come out of this differently,” saying that Hamas members are not just in Gaza, but also “throughout the West Bank.”
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said Kalcheim was fully conscious and was treated at the scene before he was sent to Sheba Medical Center for further treatment.
The Kan public broadcaster identified the stabber as Rami Hamze Ballut, and said he had identified with the Hamas terror group, and was a resident of Rantis.
He had a work permit to work in the Israeli West Bank settlement of Shilo, according to Kan, which reported that he left behind a note before the attack in which he expressed his solidarity with Hamas.
تغطية صحفية: "الشاب رامي حمزة بلوط، الذي اعتقتله قوات الاحتلال؛ بعد زعمها بأنه طــعــن جنديًا عند مدخل بلدة رنتيس قرب رام الله، وأدت لإصابة أحد جنود الاحتياط بجــيــش الاحـــتـلال. pic.twitter.com/KyHrMZCSt1
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) December 17, 2023
Tensions in the West Bank have soared since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught against southern Israel. Israeli troops have carried out dozens of raids in terror hotspots in the northern West Bank in recent months.
The IDF said earlier Sunday that at least four Palestinians were killed in overnight drone strikes in the Nur Shams camp near the West Bank city of Tulkarem. The military said that during the raid, reservists and Border Police officers arrested four wanted Palestinians, and seized two firearms, and that IDF engineering vehicles uncovered explosive devices planted under and on the sides of roads in the camp, which were intended to be detonated against troops.
Last week, the IDF conducted an unusual 60-hour raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, in which it said it arrested 60 wanted Palestinians, and seized 50 weapons and hundreds of explosive devices during the incursion that began late Monday.
The IDF said the troops also found more than 10 tunnel shafts, seven labs used to manufacture explosive devices, and five war rooms used by local terror operatives to monitor IDF operations. It said 10 armed Palestinians were killed during the raid, and others were wounded.
Israel says that the Palestinian Authority has lost control of areas of the northern West Bank, allowing terror groups to entrench themselves and launch attacks on Israelis on both sides of the Green Line.
Since the October 7 onslaught by Hamas against Israel, troops have arrested over 2,400 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,200 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, some 280 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
