A 13-year-old girl was killed by a Palestinian terrorist who infiltrated the Judean community of Kiryat Arba, located outside of Hebron, and attacked her in her home with a knife. While she was at first listed in critical condition, she was reported to have died of her wounds soon after the attack.
The terrorist, reported to be a 17-year-old Palestinian resident of the Arab village of Bani Na’im, broke into the closed community by breaching its fence. He entered a home nearby the fence, found the teenage girl sleeping in her bed and stabbed her repeatedly in the upper body before Kiryat Arba’s security team arrived.
Horrible: The scene of terror attack today in Israel, a 13 year old girl was murdered in her bedroom. pic.twitter.com/1UmSieH9EM
— David Ha’ivri (@haivri) June 30, 2016
The terrorist managed to stab one civilian security officer in the face before another member of the team shot and killed him.
A Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedic who arrived on the scene found the teenage girl, identified as eighth-grader Hallel Yaffe Ariel, unconscious and without a pulse. She was loaded into an ambulance but quickly succumbed to her wounds.
The wounded civilian guard, 30, was reported to be conscious and his injuries non-life threatening. He was evacuated to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center. His wife, a paramedic, was part of the responding MDA team.
#صور: مكان عملية الطعن بمستوطنة “كريات أربع” في الخليل قبل قليل. pic.twitter.com/aj0dcjQKXs
— Pal.Info.Center (@PalinfoAr) June 30, 2016
The community was put on lockdown while security forces searched for a potential second attacker. The lockdown was lifted after about half an hour.
It was the first stabbing attack in Israel since May 10, when two older women were attacked in Jerusalem. While the overwhelming wave of terror attacks which began last October has largely petered out, terror is still a reality throughout the country, with a horrific shooting attack in Tel Aviv claiming the lives of four Israelis earlier in the month.
