Terrorist stabs Israeli woman to death in her West Bank home
Victim Dafna Meir, 38, from settlement of Otniel tried to fight off assailant; army launches manhunt for Palestinian attacker
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
An Israeli woman was stabbed and killed in an attack at the entrance to her home in the West Bank settlement of Otniel, outside of Hebron, on Sunday evening.
The victim was named later as Dafna Meir, 38, a mother of four.
The attacker, whose identity was not immediately known, fled the scene of the crime.
The army said in a statement that the terrorist broke into the woman’s home and stabbed her to death.
According to the initial investigation, the woman struggled with the terrorist in the entrance to the family’s home. Her 17-year-old daughter witnessed the attack.
Soldiers and police officers launched a manhunt for the attacker, setting up checkpoints in the area. The attacker was believed to have fled to a nearby Arab village, possibly Khirbet Karme, located just north of Otniel, according to Israeli media.
The army instructed residents to remain in their homes as it searched for the attacker.
Channel 2 news said the attacker was seen on security cameras fleeing the settlement.
Meir’s death was confirmed by Magen Daved Adom rescue service after medics attempted to revive her at the scene.
“It was a difficult thing to see. We saw an approximately 40-year-old woman unconscious, not breathing, without a pulse,” MDA senior medic Noam Bar said.
“She had a number of penetration wounds on her upper body. We performed CPR for an extended period of time, but in the end were forced to pronounce her dead.”
Police and the Israel Defense Forces were treating the incident as a terror attack.
חיפושים באזור דרום הר חברון אחר מחבל שדקר למוות הערב אישה בביתה בהתנחלות עתניאל pic.twitter.com/W34EProSX2
— Ilan Zalayat (@ilanzalayat) January 17, 2016
“The details of the stabbing incident are still initial. Residents are requested not to leave their homes,” a spokesperson for the Hebron Hills Regional Council told Army Radio.
