Israeli stabbed in alleged terror attack in Palestinian town; suspect arrested
57-year-old in moderate condition after being knifed in Dahariya; assailant reportedly attacked after discovering he was Jewish
A 57-year-old Israeli man was stabbed by a Palestinian in the West Bank on Saturday, the military, medics and police said, with the attack suspected as terrorism.
The victim, a Jewish resident of Ashkelon, entered the Palestinian town of Dahariya near Hebron at the southern tip of the West Bank to visit a doctor there, the Ynet news site reported. He was accompanied by two Arab Israelis, the report said.
Police said a 20-year-old Palestinian assailant stabbed the man, reportedly after discovering he was Jewish.
The Israel Defense Forces later said it had arrested the suspected terrorist a short while after the attack and handed him over to the Shin Bet for questioning.
Ynet said one of the Arab Israelis accompanying the Jewish man hit the assailant in the head with a rod.
Police and the Magen David Adom ambulance service said one of the men accompanying the victim drove him to the nearby Meitar Crossing, where medics treated him for stab wounds before taking him to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.
“We gave him lifesaving treatment, stopped the bleeding, and took him to the hospital in moderate and stable condition,” said one of the MDA paramedics who treated the stab victim.
Police said officers reached the scene to investigate the circumstances, with the IDF later saying it was a suspected terror attack.
Dahariya falls under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority in Area A of the West Bank, a territory that Israelis are not legally allowed to enter. Nevertheless, it is commonplace for Arab Israelis to visit the area.
“Entry into these areas is prohibited for citizens of the State of Israel according to law and is a real threat to their lives,” police said.
Last August, an Israeli father and son were killed in the Palestinian town of Huwara while visiting a carwash in the Area A village.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have risen in the West Bank since the breakout of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza following the October 7 massacre, which saw Hamas terrorists kill about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnap 253.
Since October 7, IDF troops have arrested some 3,400 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,500 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 400 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time, most of them during violent clashes with Israeli forces.
