All three victims have “extremely serious” head injuries.
By World Israel News Staff
A Palestinian terrorist stabbed three Israelis in a shopping center in Gan Yavne on Sunday evening, seriously wounding them.
The victims, age 25, 20, and 17 were rushed to Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod. The two older victims were later transferred to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah for neurosurgery.
All three victims have “extremely serious” head injuries, Assuta said in a statement.
The perpetrator of the terror attack, a 19-year-old from the Palestinian Authority-administered town of Dura near Hebron, was shot and killed by police at the scene.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the site of the attack and praised a police officer, who had been patrolling nearby at the time of the stabbing spree, for quickly reacting to the commotion and shooting the terrorist.
“We’re at war, and certainly the enemy has more motivation to harm us,” Ben-Gvir said, encouraging Israelis to practice vigilance in public places.
The assailant, who has not been publicly named, was reportedly illegally present in Israel. At one point in time, he held a work permit that allowed him to be employed within an industrial zone in Judea and Samaria, but not within pre-1967 Israel.
Police said that he had likely infiltrated into central Israel via a hole in the security barrier.
Eduardo Schlafen, a municipal inspector, told Radio 103FM that he and a police officer had rushed to the mall after hearing reports about a disturbance.
תיעוד – שוטר מנטרל את המחבל שביצע את פיגוע הדקירה בגן יבנה
מפכ”ל המשטרה, השר לביטחון לאומי ומפקד מחוז דרום בזירת הפיגוע עם השוטר והפקח שאיתרו ונטרלו את המחבל, תושב יו”ש ללא אישורי שהייה >>> pic.twitter.com/Q17wbER0mc
— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) April 1, 2024
“We arrived at the scene within a minute and a half. We saw a young man who was covered in blood,” Schlafen said.
“I went up the stairs into the mall, then out of nowhere the terrorist came towards us. At first we didn’t see the knife. But when we saw the knife, he was already very close to me,” he continued.
“I ran to the side to give the policeman enough room to shoot. The terrorist ran after me, the policeman shot him, but he continued in my direction. I fell, the terrorist fell on top of me, I pushed him off with my legs and the policeman finished the neutralization.”
The stabbing came on the heels of a terror stabbing earlier on Sunday, in the Beersheba Central Bus Station.
In that incident, one soldier was wounded and the assailant, a Bedouin-Israeli, was shot dead.
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