Two Israelis stabbed in terror attack at supermarket
A Palestinian teen stabbed two Israeli shoppers at the Rami Levy supermarket in the Mishor Adumim Industrial Park in the West Bank, located just outside of Jerusalem.
Around 4.15pm on Wednesday afternoon, the 16-year old Palestinian walked passed the security guard that stood by the sliding glass doors, checking customers.
He then used a knife to attack two men who stood near the front aisles of the store, moderately wounding them.
An off-duty security guard from the prime minister’s office, who witnessed the stabbings shot the teen in the leg. The wounded teen tried to flee, but a number of customers held him down until the police arrived.
Upon hearing of the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the guard.
“He acted with extraordinary level-headedness, resourcefulness and bravery. I told him that we are all proud of him. I told him that even when he isn’t at work – he’s at work, and this is our work, to fight terrorism with the same determination, persistence and decisiveness,” Netanyahu said.
One of the wounded men, who himself was a Magen David Adom paramedic, immediately dialed the organisation’s hotline, even though he had been stabbed in his hand and head.
“There is an attempted terror attack. I am also injured. He attacked me from behind and ran and people ran after him and I heard shots near the entrance way,” the wounded paramedic said.
Rutti Dahan, a kindergarten teacher from the nearby Ma’aleh Adumim settlement said she waited outside the supermarket for her husband to pick her up.
As she looked at her two carts filled with groceries she suddenly remembered she and forgotten the cornflakes.
She turned around to go back in, when suddenly she heard gunfire.
“People ran out of the store and I ran also,” she said.
As she spoke she sat trembling on a bench outside, while she looked into the empty store. Groceries were still piled by the cash registers and in carts that stood abandoned by the checkout counters. Large blood stains were on the floor.
A Magen David Adom paramedic who arrived at the scene, Fadai Badarna, said that when he arrived the two victims were fully conscious.
“One was walking and the other lay on the ground,” and added that this man was wounded in his shoulder.
The two wounded men were taken to Hadassah Ein Karem Medical Center in Jerusalem. The terrorist, who was from the nearby village of Azariya was taken to Sha’are Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem. Security forces said he had no arrest record.
Police arrested two additional Palestinian suspects. Among the scenarios they are looking into is the possibility that the two drove the teenager to the store. Separately, they are also looking into the possibility that the terrorist was not armed when he entered Rami Levy, but stole the knife from the store’s deli.
Ma’aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel, who was on the scene, called on the Palestinian Authority to ensure that no further attacks occur in the industrial park, which employes 2,500 Palestinians who work alongside Israelis.
Both Israelis and Palestinians work and shop in the supermarket.
The owners of the supermarket chain, Rami Levy said that he had done everything to ensure the safety of his customers.
The terrorists, he said, had attempted to destroy a place of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. “I won’t let them succeed,” he said.
As he spoke, his employees were busy cleaning up the supermarket. They washed down the blood from the floor and returned the overturned groceries to the shelves.
The store re-opened two hours after the attack. Customers wheeled carts into the stores. One shopper Meira Schechter said that the attack did not deter her from her scheduled shopping trip. “This is my day to come,” she said and added that such an attack can “happen everywhere.”
Dalya Gottfield from the Jordan Valley said, “to my sorry, the moments just after such an attack are the safest.”
The Rami Levy incident was the second West Bank terror attack this week. On Monday, a young Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli man, lightly wounding him, as he stood at the Gush Etzion junction.
TOVAH LAZAROFF/JPOST.COM
Israeli rescue personnel stand next to a stretcher with a detained Palestinian who stabbed two people in the Rami Levy supermarket.
comments