Some 1,300 Israelis gathered at the West Bank settlement of Har Braha, to accompany Rabbi Itamar Ben-Gal, who was stabbed to death in a terror attack yesterday, by whom Israeli-media alleged was a 19-year-old Arab Israeli citizen.” Neither the military nor the Israeli security services were willing to confirm to TV7 the attacker’s identity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who announced the death of the Israeli civilian, indicated that security forces were conducting a manhunt. He said, “I just spoke to MADA’s (Israel’s medical services) CEO Eli Bin who confirmed the death of the wounded from the Ariel junction attack. We send our condolences to the family. The army and (Israel’s) Security Services forces are now chasing the murderers,” the Israeli leader announced during a meeting of his ruling Likud party.
The announcement by Prime Minister Netanyahu came just moments after Israel’s police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld announced “a successful operation,” in which Israel’s YAMAM counter-terrorism forces killed the Palestinian Islamist that according to Israel “headed a terror cell responsible for an ambush in which Rabbi Raziel Shevah was murdered, some three weeks ago.” Rosenfeld said, “Israeli national police, border police and counter terrorism the ‘Yamam’ carried out an operation overnight to focus and try to find the terrorists who carried out the deadly attack that murdered Rabbi Shevach just over three weeks ago. As a result of the operation the terrorist was shot and killed, there was no injuries to our officers and counter terrorism operation will continue to in all areas to prevent and respond to any terrorist attack in areas of Israel,” the police spokesman stated.
Israeli security forces entered the Palestinian West Bank village of Yamoun, which is situated not far from the city of Jenin, where “the forces located and identified the terrorist,” who was reportedly armed with an automatic weapon, before they targeted and killed him. The governor of the Palestinian city of Jenin said that Israeli Authorities informed him of the assassination of the assailant, a move the governor staunchly condemned.
Meanwhile, the Mayor of the Israeli Settlement of Ariel responded to the latest terror attacks, which have claimed the lives of two Israelis in the past three weeks, declaring “the only answer to all those murders, is to apply Israeli sovereignty for all Jewish settlements across Judea and Samaria,” the biblical term for the West Bank. He declared, “I can tell you that the answer to all those murderers — who committed a murder here and in (the Israeli cities of) Petah Tikva and in Ra’anana and in any other place within the state of Israel – is to apply Israeli sovereignty on all Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria. This is the answer,” Mayor Aliyahu Shaviro asserted.