A 19-year-old Israel Defense Forces soldier from Upper Nazareth died shortly after being stabbed repeatedly in the neck and chest on Wednesday morning on a bus traveling from the northern Israeli city of Afula to Tel Aviv.
Pvt. Eden Atias succumbed to his wounds at HaEmek Medical Center in Afula. He had been asleep when the attack occurred. Magen David Adom paramedics had arrived quickly on the scene.
The murderer, Hussein Jawadra, is a 16-year-old resident of the Palestinian city of Jenin in Judea and Samaria. According to IDF radio, he admitted that he acted in revenge for the fact that his uncles are serving time in Israeli prison and he was determined to murder when he boarded the bus.
He was apprehended by a female soldier and a border policeman who were on the same bus.
Atias had joined the IDF in October and was undergoing basic training.
It is not yet clear how Jawadra managed leave PA-administrated territory, although some reports indicate that he had been working in Israel illegally and that he has brothers closely linked to terror groups. The Northern District Police held a security assessment following the attack, according to a Channel 2 report.
IDF soldier Jonathan Miller commented on Facebook:
“A soldier was just stabbed to death by a 16-year-old Palestinian who illegally entered Israel from Jenin. And this happened at the Afula central bus station on the bus! I’m a soldier, in uniform, currently on a bus right now. I’m heartbroken and shaking from this.”
“The Palestinian Authority’s well-oiled incitement system continues to claim victims,” Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hatovely declared. “[PA President] Mahmoud Abbas has a tactic of indirectly harming Israel. Jews aren’t killed by PA officials, but by the ‘Palestinian street,’ which is fed each day by anti-Israel propaganda. We cannot continue talking peace while the PA is talking terror.”
Meir Indor, head of the Almagor Terror Victims Association, issued the following statement, as quoted in Israel Hayom:
“The hand that held the knife today may have been that of a Palestinian teenager, but he was sent by Abu Mazen [aka Abbas] and his associates in the PA, who offer released murderers a hero’s welcome in Ramallah. By doing that they are raising another generation of young killers who grow up hoping to become Palestinian heroes.”
Jawadra “carried out the attack knowing that no one would try to kill him for fear of prosecution, but he also knew that if he was caught and tried his sentenced would be commuted via another [prisoners’ release] deal. Until then, he would sit in prison and receive a scholarship. Once released, he will receive a hero’s welcome in Ramallah and then a generous pension for the rest of his life. What a great deal!”
Almagor urged the Israeli government “to announce that it will no longer release any terrorists, in order to signal that nothing can be gained from murdering Israelis and rehabilitate Israeli deterrence.”
Author: Atara Beck, Staff Writer for United with Israel
Date: Nov. 13, 2013
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