Palestinian woman stabs, lightly injures Israeli in Gush Etzion
IDF searching for car that dropped off the woman at the junction.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, TOVAH LAZAROFFScene of Gush Ezion stabbing.(photo credit: GUSH ETZION REGIONAL COUNCIL)
An Israeli civilian was lightly injured after being stabbed with a knife by a Palestinian woman near the Gush Etzion junction.Security forces at at the military post opened fire at the attacker, shooting and injuring her. The attacker has been taken to the Hadassah University Medical Center in Ein Kerem for medical treatment.Magen David Adom paramedics provided treatment to an Israeli civilian who did not require hospitalization.The 20-year-old Palestinian who was shot is in serious condition, a paramedic said.The IDF closed off the area and was searching for the vehicle that dropped off the attacker at the junction.Gush Etzion Regional Council head Davidi Perl said he was relieved no one had been seriously harmed in the attack.He thanked the IDF soldiers for their quick reactions that prevented any further harm from the attack.“I am asking the Defense Minister to do everything possible to restore quiet and security to the residents of the area,” Perl said.“The residents of Gush Etzion are determined to continue their lives as normal. We will do everything we can to make sure that they proposer and flourish,” he said.
The terrorist was identified as Amal Taqata, 20, from Beit Fajar in the West Bank. On Monday, shortly after the attack, IDF troops came to her family house in the village and questioned several relatives, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said, adding that they left without making any arrests.They added that during the questioning, around 100 people gathered outside the house and a disturbance began during which one soldier was lightly hurt after someone threw a tire at him, but he did not need medical treatment.Another woman from the village, also named Amal Taqata, was the suicide bomber behind the 2002 Machana Yehuda bombing."The Shin Bet General Security Service said Monday night that Taqata, 20, was not known to the service and had not served any time in an Israeli prison. They said they did not know of any affiliation that she did or did not have with any armed organizations or terror groups."The attack occurred a short distance away from the site of two other fatal terrorist attacks on Route 367. Last month, Dalya Lemkus, 26, of the Tekoa settlement was stabbed to death in a terror attack as she stood at a bus stop by the Alon Shvuet settlement. Nine years earlier she had been lightly wounded in a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction.In June, Hamas terrorist kidnapped and killed three teenagers – Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrah – as they stood at a bus stop across the road from where Lemus was killed.
