Palestinian Stabs 12 on Tel Aviv Bus
Israeli policeman guards scene of a bus stabbing in Tel Aviv. Image by getty images
At least 12 people were wounded, some seriously, when a Palestinian terrorist boarded a bus in Tel Aviv, stabbing the driver and passengers.
Four victims, including the driver, remained in serious condition following the Wednesday morning attack, which Israeli reports say injured between 12 and 21 people. The assailant, a 23-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Tulkarem, who had entered Israel illegally, was shot in the leg by a commander in the Israel Prison Service who was at the scene of the attack. The assailant was apprehended by police.
The attack occurred on Tel Aviv’s number 40 bus Wednesday morning while it was stopped at a major intersection. It is the first terror attack in Tel Aviv since an assailant killed a soldier in a stabbing attack at a train station in November.
In a statement following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Prison Service members who stopped the attacker and drew a link between the incident and recent terror incidents in France and Belgium. He blamed Palestinian officials for inciting the attack.
“The attack in Tel Aviv is the direct result of the poisonous incitement spread by the Palestinian Authority toward the Jews and their state,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement following the attack. “The same terror tries to harm us in Paris, Brussels, and everywhere.”
According to Israeli reports, the attacker boarded the bus at approximately 7:15 a.m. and began stabbing passengers soon afterwards. Bus driver Herzl Biton, 55, sprayed the assailant with pepper spray as he was being stabbed, which delayed the assailant and aided the Prison Service in stopping him as he ran from the scene.
“We identified in the area of the Maariv Bridge a large gathering, and people crying for help. After an initial assessment, we understood it was a terrorist incident,” said Prison Service Commander Benny Botershvili, who shot the attacker, according to the Times of Israel. “I and a team of three Nachshon fighters identified the terrorist and chased after him. We shot toward his legs, the terrorist collapsed and fell, we handcuffed him, and waited for the police to arrive.”
Eighth-grade student Liel Suissa, who was on his way to school, told Israeli daily Israel Hayom that he broke a window to escape the attack after the assailant began stabbing people. The assailant continued chasing after people as they escaped the bus, Suissa said.
“Suddenly, the terrorist came and began stabbing people,” Suissa said, according to Israel Hayom. “We all went to the back, and most of the people piled onto me. I sat in the bus and heard people screaming. He turned around in the bus and suddenly went to the driver and stabbed him.”
Tel Aviv Police Commander Bentzi Sau called the attack a “nationalist incident” and praised Biton’s “excellent reaction” to the stabbing. He said the police are investigating whether accomplices assisted the attacker.
Officials from Hamas, the terror organization that governs Gaza, praised the attack as “heroic and courageous,” according to Israeli reports. Hamas said it was a “natural reaction of sons of the Palestinian nation to the crimes of the cruel Zionist occupier.”
Marcy Oster contributed to this report.
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