The terror victim arrives at the hospital. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
A Palestinian terrorist armed with a knife infiltrated the Israeli community of Kiryat Arba, butchering a 13-year-old Israeli girl with US citizenship in her own bedroom while she was asleep.
The terrorist infiltrated a home in the community and stabbed Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a 13-year-old girl, multiple times as she lay in her bed, and then was shot dead by the girl’s father, a member of the local rapid-response emergency team.
The US State Department said that Hallel Ariel was an American citizen.
Another man was stabbed by the terrorist and shot and seriously wounded, apparently from friendly fire shot by Israeli security forces.
“The girl was unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing. She suffered from a number of deep wounds on her upper body. We provided initial life-sustaining treatment. We quickly loaded her onto the ambulance and evacuated her to the hospital, while performing CPR. Her condition was critical. We loaded the second victim into the ambulance and gave him life-saving treatment. He was fully conscious, communicating with us throughout the ride,” Magen David Adom medic Dvora Aviyad recounted.
The girl was evacuated to Sha’are Zedek hospital in the capital, while the male victim, 31, was evacuated to Ein Kerem hospital with gunshot wounds to his chest and lower body, and in stable condition. His wife, a medic, helped evacuate and treat her husband.
ZAKA volunteer David Edrai said that as they were working at the scene of the attack, they received the tragic news of the young girl’s death. “To our great sadness, we find ourselves time after time treating people from our own community, people we know – and it breaks our heart. We carry out our sacred work with enormous pain and difficulties.”
Palestinian sources identified the terrorist as Muhammed al Tararia, 17.
Israeli security forces are now investigating how the terrorist managed to enter the community, which is surrounded by several preventive security measures.
The area has been the scene of multiple Palestinian terror attacks in the past months. Last Friday, a female Palestinian terrorist was shot by security forces after she attempted to ram her car into Israelis getting on a bus.
This incident was the latest in a long series of Palestinian terror attacks, which have plagued Israelis over the course of over nine months, claiming the lives of 38 victims and wounding over 450.
By: Max Gelber, United with Israel