A 25-year-old Israeli man is in moderate condition with multiple stab wounds to the head after a terror attack in Beit Shemesh early Thursday.
The two terrorists first tried to attack a children’s school bus before realizing that wasn’t going to work, and quickly moved on to what they believed was a less complicated target.
The two Arabs were standing at the bus stop along with a group of Jewish children and tried to board their school mini-bus during the morning rush hour, according to numerous eyewitness reports.
The terrorists, identified by police as Arabs from Hebron and Halhul, attempted to board the bus with the children. But an eyewitness told Galei Tzahal Army Radio the bus driver “closed the door to keep them out.” He also added, however, that “no one wanted to approach them because no one had a gun.”
The Israeli government is especially conservative about authorizing gun licenses for civilians.
The same eyewitness, Yinon Chen, said he followed the suspicious-looking pair as they abandoned the bus stop and moved on. He called police, noting they tried to enter a synagogue on Havakuk Street, where they stabbed a hareidi-religious man multiple times as he left morning prayers.
At that point, police arrived on the scene and neutralized the two terrorists. Both were shot.
The Jewish teen was treated at the scene and then rushed to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in moderate condition, with stab wounds to his upper body and head, according to Magen David Adom medics.
The terrorists were in critical condition at the time of the attack and evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center. One was pronounced dead on arrival. The second was subsequently listed in critical condition.
Beit Shemesh is primarily a religious city of 100,000 people located on the southwestern flank of the capital, among the forested Judean hills.
