Itongadol.- A Palestinian man stabbed and lightly wounded a Border Police officer at the Tapuah junction on Monday, the second such attack at the location in less than 48 hours.
The Border Police said in a statement after the attack that a Palestinian man approached the officers at the checkpoint and told them he was not feeling well. The officers then told the man to halt, but he continued to approach them, finally pulling out a knife and stabbing one of the officers, lightly wounding him. The Border Police said the officer managed to push away the attacker and a second officer opened fire, critically injuring the Palestinian man.
The attacker was treated at the scene by IDF medics, but died of his wounds, the army confirmed.
Monday’s attack follows a stabbing very close to Tapuah junction on Saturday evening, in which a Palestinian man lightly wounded a Border Police officer at a checkpoint on the highway leading towards the Palestinian village of Huwara. The attacker was shot and killed by other Border Patrol officers at the scene.
The attack at Tapuah junction on Monday also bore some similarities to one earlier on Saturday, when a Palestinian man at a checkpoint on Highway 443 near Beit Horon asked a soldier for a cup of water, and then stabbed the soldier after he turned his back, lightly wounding him.
An IDF spokesperson said in the wake of the event, "IDF forces opened fire and injured the terrorist. The terrorist has been detained."
The perpetrator, Mahmoud Nasim Yousef Gumhouriyya, a resident of Beit Annan in Ramallah, was reportedly lightly wounded.
An initial investigation conducted by Israeli Security Forces indicates that the attack was premeditated rather than spontaneous. The suspect allegedly arrived at the Beit Horon checkpoint, made contact with IDF personnel and subsequently launched an attack against the victim.
Another stabbing attack on highway 443 took place at the Dor Alon gas station the week before. A 26 year old Israeli man was lightly injured and treated at the scene by Magen David Adom paramedics before being evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. The IDF shot one suspect, killing him at the scene. The army is currently investigating the situation along with Israeli Security Forces. Police believe there are other suspects involved, however their status remains unknown.
An Israeli Medical Emergency spokesman said after the incident, "When we arrived at the scene we were met with a 26 year old with stab wounds to the upper body and being treated by military medical forces. The victim said he was attacked while fueling his car. We then continued treatment and evacuated the victim to a Jerusalem hospital."
And earlier in the month, a Palestinian terrorist struck and wounded three soldiers in a vehicular attack as they walked with their unit on the side of Route 60, near the Shiloh junction in the West Bank.
Two of the soldiers were seriously wounded, and were transported – one by helicopter and the other by ambulance – to Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem. The third soldier, Lt. Daniel Albaz, was taken to Beilinson Medical Center in Petah Tikva where he described for reporters how the white four-door car plowed into them.
“I understood that it was a terror attack,” he said with his arm in a cast. Albaz explained that he was able to shoot the Palestinian driver, whose vehicle then flipped over. The driver, who was seriously wounded, was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
The soldiers were part of a unit that had been stationed in the area to deal with any issues that might arise in the aftermath of last week’s terror attack by Jewish extremists in the nearby village of Duma, in which a Palestinian toddler burned to death after his home was torched.
In the aftermath of the attack, an unidentified assailant, assumed to be Palestinian, threw a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli vehicle in northeast Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina neighborhood Monday night, injuring two people.
Tensions have increased since Duma terror attack victim Sa\’ad Dewabshe succumbed to his wounds this past Saturday. Hamas has made a call to action, urging Palestinians to attack settlers in an act of revenge.