Moments before stabbing attempt: Watch Palestinian assailants at Gush Etzion junction

Security footage released of three Palestinians who attempted to attack IDF forces at West Bank settlement intersection the night before.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Updated: JANUARY 8, 2016 16:44
Gush Etzion security cameras
IDF reservists shot and killed three Palestinian terrorists who attempted to attack them with knives at the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank on Thursday night, according to the IDF.
Palestinian medics identified the three as Ahmed Salem Abdel Majid Kawazba, 19, Ala Abed Mahmoud Kawazba, 19, and Muhammad Ziad Kawazba, 18. All three belong to the Kawazba clan in the town of Sair north of Hebron.
Thursday’s incident was a revenge attack, according to Ma’ariv, The Jerusalem Post’s sister paper.
On Tuesday, Ahmed Yusef Kawazba stabbed and lighted wounded an IDF reservist at a bus stop at the Gush Etzion junction. A nearby IDF soldier shot and killed the 18-year-old, who was also from Sair.
The Gush Etzion junction has been the site of many stabbing incidents since October, but it is unusual for such an attack to involve three assailants.
On Thursday afternoon the IDF arrested a Palestinian man carrying a knife near Hebron’s Jewish Beit Hadassah building.
In Jerusalem Thursday, police arrested an unidentified 16-year-old Palestinian male for allegedly planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the capital. According to police, the suspect was arrested at the Shuafat refugee camp checkpoint after border policemen stationed in the area saw him behaving suspiciously.
“Police units surrounded the suspect and upon questioning and searching him found a knife carefully hidden on his back, inside his T-shirt,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. “He was arrested and admitted to intending to stab a security officer inside Jerusalem.”
Rosenfeld said no one was injured during the arrest and that police continue to enforce heightened security in the capital to prevent future terrorist attacks.
Khaled Abu Toameh, Daniel K. Eisenbud and Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.