Three Israelis were murdered and five more were critically wounded in a stabbing and car-ramming terror attack in the Jewish West Bank town of Ariel on Monday. The Palestinian attacker was shot dead.
The terrorist first stabbed a security guard multiple times at an industrial park and critically wounded another. He then continued to a nearby gas station where he stabbed two more people in the back. One of the victims, a 35-year-old, was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other, a 40-year-old, was seriously injured. He then fled the scene in a stolen vehicle, ramming it into another vehicle and killing a 55-year-old, before stabbing another person. He fled the vehicle on foot with security forces in pursuit.
In footage circulating social media, it appears that the attacker was shot by armed civilians in the vicinity, and not by security forces.
“On behalf of the Government and State of Israel, I send my condolences to the families of those murdered and my wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded,” interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement.
“We are relentlessly fighting terrorism with the full might of … all the security forces. Recently, we have succeeded in dismantling extensive terrorist infrastructure and planning, but we must fight this war every day anew.
“Our security forces are working around the clock to protect the citizens of Israel and target terrorist infrastructure anytime, anywhere,” he said.
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan blamed the outgoing Lapid-led government for the attack, saying the terror attack demonstrated a “lack of governance and lack of deterrence.”
“The person who stands behind this wave of terror is the terrorist in a suit [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas],” Dagan said.
“The Israeli government must mark him as a security target. The Palestinian Authority is behind this wave of terror.”
The attack comes amid a wave of terror against Israelis, as well as an ongoing counter-terror operation by the IDF against terror cells in the West Bank.