Israeli man killed in fatal West Bank attack

Assailants kill man in northern Jordan Valley; woman escapes, says 2 Palestinians wielding ax, iron bars attacked couple.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Police cars at night 370 (photo credit: Courtesy Israel Police)
Police cars at night 370
(photo credit: Courtesy Israel Police)
An IDF reserve colonel Sraya Ofer was killed on Thursday night and his girlfriend wounded in an attack in the northern Jordan Valley region, an IDF spokesperson confirmed for The Jerusalem Post.
According Ofer's partner, Monique Omer, the couple, both in their 50's, heard noises outside their home, located near the West Bank moshav Shadmot Mehola.
Upon leaving the house to investigate, the man was attacked and killed by what the woman said were two Palestinians wielding an ax and iron bars.
The two attackers reportedly tried to grab the woman as she fled from the scene and stopped a passing car on Route 90 to call security forces, Israel Radio reported.
"I received a call from a woman who said she (and her husband) were attacked inside their home and she managed to run away and stop a passing car for help," a paramedic working the Magen David Adom call center said. "I immediately sent medics in the area to the scene and contacted the security forces."
IDF troops arrived to the scene and were conducting sweeps of the area in search of the attacker.
The woman, sustaining light injuries, was evacuated to a hospital in Afula for further treatment.
The attack could not be immediately confirmed as an act of terror and motivations for the attack were under investigation.
The attack follows a string of violent incidents over the last month involving Israeli citizens. In September, two IDF soldiers were killed in the West Bank and a nine-year-old girl was injured Saturday in front of her home in the West Bank settlement of Psagot.
Former IDF Central Command chief Gadi Shamni recently expressed his fears that in light of the past month's attacks in the West Bank, a new intifada could be in the works.

"The events of the past month may lead to an escalation in the West Bank," Shamni told Army Radio in an interview nearly a week ago.

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"It's very difficult to determine if this is the start of an intifada," he continued.