Police prevent lynching of terrorist in Rishon Lezion

Dozens of police officers protected a Palestinian terrorist from an angry mob in Rishon Lezion, just south of Tel Aviv, on Sunday afternoon, when he found himself trapped after stabbing three people.

The a 19-year-old Palestinian from Hebron stabbed and wounded two civilians — one of them an 80-year-old woman — before running into a store, where he stabbed another man. The terrorist was trapped inside the store when a fleeing woman locked the door behind her.

Angry bystanders converged on the store and cornered the terrorist just as police on motorcycles arrived.

Cellphone video footage shows police officers holding back dozens of people attempting to reach the the attacker as officers handcuffed and arrested him. A handful of people can be heard shouting: “Why is he still alive?” and “Death to the Arabs.”

Police said they prevented the crowd from hurting or even killing the terrorist.

Yehezkel Ben-Zimra, a municipality worker who was nearby at the time of the attack, told Channel 2 that 30 or 40 policemen shielded the terrorist from the mob with their bodies as he was led to the police car.

“Despite the frustration and pain, I don’t think he should have been lynched, because we are human beings, and we shouldn’t sink to their level,” Ben-Zimra said.

“As soon as it happened, I got really scared, angry and became enraged because I heard innocent people had been stabbed. At the time, my first instinct was to attack him, but I am glad that it didn’t happen,” he continued.

Hours after the attack in Rishon Lezion, a 71-year-old Israeli man was very seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in the northern city of Netanya. The terrorist was confirmed by police as a 23-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank city of Tulkarem, which lies just 10 miles east of Netanya. He was shot by a police officer, reportedly while attempting to flee the scene. He is said to be in critical condition.

There too, police protected the terrorist from an angry mob.

Dozens of Palestinian stabbing attacks have targeted Israelis in recent weeks in a wave of violence that also saw clashes between Palestinian protesters and IDF and Border Police forces in the West Bank and Jerusalem.