Stabbing at Gush Etzion Junction

YERUSHALAYIM
Israeli security forces at the site of a terrorist stabbing at the Gush Etzion junction on Monday. (Gershon Elinson/FLASH90)
Israeli security forces at the site of a terrorist stabbing at the Gush Etzion junction on Monday. (Gershon Elinson/FLASH90)

An Israeli man was lightly wounded on Monday in the latest stabbing attack by a Palestinian, this time at the Gush Etzion Junction, just a hundred yards from where three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and murdered last June. Hy”d.

Josh Lorech, 31, from Machane Yatir, was standing at a hitchhiking post talking with an acquaintance in a car when Amal Jamal Takatka, 22, from Beit Fajjar, knifed him in the neck.

She fled, but after a brief chase Israeli security forces shot her and she was evacuated to Hadassah Hospital, Ein Karem, in serious condition. Takatka is known to security forces as a member of Fatah.

“All of a sudden, I felt a blow here [pointing to the left side of his neck] and was a little shocked,” Lorech told Ynet. “By the time I turned around, all I saw was a black form moving away from me. It turns out that was the attacker. At the same time, I see that there’s a knife stuck here [pointing to the back part of his coat collar]. It didn’t feel like a knife; it felt like a dry blow. It’s unbelievable — simply a miracle. Thank G-d.”

Yitzhak Shuv, a volunteer medic, said that the victim sustained very light wounds to his shoulder and refused medical treatment.

In November, Dalia Lemkus, 26, was killed and two people wounded in a stabbing attack near Alon Shvut.

Following Monday’s incident, Takatka’s home was surrounded by a large military force. The IDF has declared the area a closed military zone and was searching the house. Her father was taken into custody.

Later on Monday, shots were fired at an Egged bus en route from Yerushalayim to the city of Ariel in the Shomron.

The bus sustained damage, but no injuries were reported in the incident that took place on Route 60, and police were investigating.

In a separate incident at the Alon Junction in Shomron on Monday, a 60 year-old Israeli man was very seriously hurt after being struck by a speeding vehicle in a hit-and-run. It was not clear, though, whether it was the work of terrorists.

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