IDF forces arrested on Saturday a terrorist who was involved in the attempted stabbing attack at the Gitai Avishar Junction in Samaria on Friday.
An IDF spokesman said a manhunt for accomplices in the attack led to the arrest of a suspect who drove the vehicle from which the terrorist got out and committed the attack. He was not armed.
On Friday, an Arab terrorist armed with this knife got out of a vehicle and ran toward a bus stop where civilians and IDF soldiers were standing. Israeli forces at the scene shot and killed the terrorist. There were no Israeli casualties.
The soldier who shot the terrorist recounted that the terrorist got out of the car, “pulled out a knife, shouted ‘Allah Akbar’ and ran towards me. I fired to neutralize him.”
The terrorist was identified as Amir Rayan, 36, from the village of Qarwat Bani Hassan, a father of four.
His brother Mansour Rayan, a Hamas terrorist, murdered an Israeli man 28 years ago in an attack in Samaria. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and was released in the Shalit deal and deported to the Gaza Strip.
Hamas released a statement mourning the “martyr hero Mujahid” and said the terror attacks “are a natural response to the crimes of the enemy and its settlers.”
“A thousand greetings to the spirit of the heroic martyr and to all the heroes of the stabbing and ramming operations and the heroes of the resistance who clash every night with the enemy and its settlers, and we call upon the masses of our people to confront the occupation army and its herds of settlers,” the terror organization stated.
“The convoys of martyrs will remain a beacon that illuminates the path for our people towards freedom and independence, and the purification of our sanctuaries, and our holy sites from the impurity of the occupation and its usurping settlers,” it added.