Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman ordered additional forces be sent into Hebron in the wake of a wave of terror attacks over the weekend. “In accordance with situational assessments, the IDF is deploying a battalion to reinforce the area of Hebron,” the IDF said in a statement Saturday night. Brigadier General Ior Carmeli visited the scenes of the attacks in Hebron over the past two days.
On Saturday morning, a soldier was stabbed by an Arab terrorist. It was the third attack in the Hebron area and the fifth terrorist attack of the weekend by the end of the Sabbath. The stabber, identified later as local resident Hatem Abdel Hafez al-Shaloudi, was shot and killed by other soldiers. The soldier he stabbed suffered minor wounds.
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But the incident underscores the increasing generations of Arabs born into a culture of rage and hate, then raised, schooled and trained into terror against Jews and Israelis.
In this case, al-Shaloudi approached the soldier who was guarding a checkpoint in the Hebron neighborhood of Tel Rumeida, and handed him a document that appeared to be identification. As soon as the soldier was distracted by glancing at the paper, the terrorist drew a knife and stabbed him.
Fortunately the soldier has great peripheral vision and excellent reflexes: he ducked, and managed to evade most of the knife, while his attacker made a lunge for a second soldier. Forces tackled the stabber and others came to their aid, eventually neutralizing the attacker.
“In response to the immediate threat, forces at the scene shot the assailant, resulting in his death,” the IDF said in its statement Saturday.