Hadar Buchris, a 21-year-old living in Tsfat in northern Israel, was stabbed and killed on Nov. 22 at the Gush Etzion Junction, near the settlement of Alon Shvut. She was declared dead at a Jerusalem hospital.
Buchris’ assailant, identified by the Shin Bet security service as Wissam Tawabte, 34, was shot and killed by troops at the scene. Tawabte, a Palestinian from the nearby village of Beit Fajjar, did not have a record of suspected terror activity, according to the Shin Bet.
At the same junction three days earlier, 18-year-old American yeshiva student Ezra Schwartz and two others were shot and killed, reportedly by Palestinian gunmen. Other deadly attacks have taken place at the junction in recent months.
Also on Nov. 22, a Palestinian taxi driver attempted to run over a group of Israelis at a junction near the West Bank settlement of Kfar Adumim, the Israel Defense Forces said. Unsuccessful in his attempts, the driver exited his vehicle and tried to stab Israelis. The attacker, identified as a resident of a Palestinian village near Ramallah, was shot and killed by a civilian at the scene, according to the IDF.
That same morning, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl from Nablus allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli near the West Bank settlement of Ariel. An Israeli civilian who witnessed the attack ran over the girl, after which Israeli security forces shot her dead, according to reports. The Israeli civilian was later identified as Gershon Mesika, a settlement leader who is the former head of the Samaria Regional Council.
On Nov. 21, a Palestinian man from a village near Hebron in the West Bank allegedly stabbed four people, including a 13-year-old girl, in front of a sports stadium in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat. Their injuries were reported to be moderate to serious. The alleged stabber, arrested later that night with his accomplices, reportedly was holding a bloody knife at the time of the arrest.
The next morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced more stringent security measures being taken in the Hebron area, where most of the recent terror attacks have originated. Netanyahu said they include more roadblocks and arrests, as well as an increase in security forces.
“We are facing terrorism by individuals. This is not terrorism by organizations, this is terrorism by individuals, occasionally with kitchen knives, who are incited mainly by social media,” he said. “It is very difficult to hermetically prevent the arrival of such knife-wielding, or other, terrorists to this or that place.” — jta