Attempted stabbing attack at Gush Etzion Junction

An attempted stabbing attack was reported at the Gush Etzion Junction on Sunday morning after a terrorist reportedly ran toward soldiers with a knife and was shot.

No injuries were reported and the terrorist reportedly died of his wounds.

Video from a nearby security camera showed a man in a hoodie slowly approaching soldiers at a bus stop at the junction, before pulling an object out of his pocket and running toward the soldiers. The soldiers proceeded to fire at him and he can be seen in the video falling to the ground.

The terrorist attempted to use an improvised weapon made of three knives attached to a stick in the attack.

"I was standing at the northern hitchhiking station, at the Gush Etzion Junction, to protect the civilians who were there,” said Corporal E., a soldier in the Nahshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade who shot the terrorist. “I saw a suspect walking on the road and began advancing quickly towards me and civilians who were at the spot. I recognized that he had drawn a knife, I shot and neutralized the terrorist. I have been here in operational employment with my friends in the battalion for about a month. We stay alert all the time to avoid cases like this. We will continue to protect the residents of Gush Etzion and protect our home."

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem condemned the killing of the terrorist in the attack, calling it an "execution of a Palestinian youth" and "continuation of the guerrilla behavior practiced by the enemy's army." The Hamas spokesman called for "escalating resistance in all its forms" and a "real and joint confrontation," adding that security coordination, which was recently renewed between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, should be stopped.

Earlier this month, the IDF thwarted a terror attack at the Gush Etzion Junction, with a security guard killing a Palestinian man who had thrown a knife at him near the bus stop across from the entrance to the shopping mall.

A similar attack type of attack occurred at the junction in January 2020.