[First Published in Western Journalism.]
While the knife jihad in Israel continues, new details emerged about what exactly happened last week Wednesday when 13-year-old Israeli-American Hallel Yaffa Ariel was slaughtered by a 19-year-old Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist in the town of Kiryat Arba near Hebron in Israel.
A source in the security forces of Kiryat Arba who wishes to remain anonymous told Western Journalism what happened in the house where the girl was sleeping, exhausted after a dance recital in Jerusalem the night before.
The horrific terrorist act that rocked Israeli society began when an alarm about a breach in the security fence was sent to members of the rapid response security team.
One of the security guards who responded to the alarm originally thought that the alarm was caused by youths who exit the town via the fence, but when he arrived in the area he noticed suspicious sounds coming out of the house of the Ariel family.
At that moment a second member of the security team arrived, and the guards decided to call Amichai, Hallel’s father, who is also a member of the local civilian rapid response security team. He confirmed that his daughter was at home.
A short while later, the father of the girl arrived to open the front door of the house, followed by one of the security guards. He immediately went to the girl’s room to check if everything was OK. When he opened the door, he saw his daughter bleeding from multiple stab wounds. Ariel called out Hallel’s name, but she didn’t respond. He then tried to resuscitate her but soon realized that his daughter had died. He then collapsed in shock.
At the same time, one of the other security guards noticed from his position in the corridor a moving shadow behind a closet in the room. He understood that the terrorist was still there and was trying to hide behind the closet.
He noticed that the terrorist, Mohammad Tra’ayra from the village Bani Na’im near Hebron, was in the possession of a very large knife that looked like a sword. The guard decided to neutralize Tra’ayra, shooting him two times in the back.
Tra’ayra collapsed, but that didn’t prevent him from stabbing the second security guard, who also was hit in his head by a ricocheting bullet. His colleague saved his life by shooting the terrorist in the head.
The wounded security guard lost an eye but the bullet miraculously didn’t reach his brain.
All this happened in the span of a few seconds, the source told Western Journalism.
He said that the girl had eight stab wounds in her upper body and that the terrorist also stabbed Hallel in her throat.
At Hallel’s funeral, her dance instructor called the girl “a princess in white with a penetrating gaze and a stormy silence about her.”
“Yesterday, like a white bird, you danced the dance of your life,” Esther Marom said, referring to Hallel’s dance performance in Jerusalem the night before the horrific terrorist act.
Hallel’s mother, Rina Ariel, said at the funeral, “God, Father, how do you give a eulogy for a 13-and-a-half-year-old girl? I had the merit of giving birth to you and from that moment on my life was filled with light. For 13-and-a-half years you gave her to me for safekeeping, and now I give her back to you. But Father, there’s no more room up there in heaven, the people of Kiryat Arba have already filled it.”
She also had something to say to the mother of Mohammad Tra’ayra.
“I want to address the mother of the terrorist who did this. I teach my children to love and you’ve have educated yours to hate,” Hallel’s mother said.
Later Rina Ariel stunned the thousands of Israelis who came to her home in Kiryat Arba to comfort the family. Instead, she comforted her fellow Israelis.
She told them to be strong and that by living in Kiryat Arba (the place where Abraham once lived, according to the Bible) Israelis show the Palestinian Authority Arabs that they will win. By living in places the Arabs claim as their sole property, Jews pave the way to the rebuilding of the Temple (Har HaBayit), she told her sobbing visitors before eulogizing her daughter.
The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, has yet to condemn the ruthless murder of Hallel Yaffa Ariel.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas made no official statement after the attack and reportedly refused to answer telephone calls from foreign leaders who wanted to urge him to condemn the murder. He also ordered Palestinian Authority media not to report on the brutal attack.