An Arab man, armed with a knife, was apprehended by Israeli security forces on Tuesday night as he was cutting through the security fence of the town of Itamar in the Shomron (Samaria).
The would-be-terrorist, with very bad timing, was captured right in the middle of a routine drill of the town’s counter-terrorist response unit which was training at the time near the fence.
During the exercise, the terrorist was spotted trying to cut the fence. The members of the rapid response team approached him, he tried to attack them, and they were successful in subduing him.
צפו: במהלך תרגיל שגרתי נלכד מחבל עם סכין
כתת הכוננות של הישוב איתמר קיימה תרגיל שגרתי. במהלך התרגיל זוהה אדם מנסה לחתוך את הגדר. חברי כיתת הכוננות רצו אליו לפני שהספיק לחתוך את הגדר ולאחר מאבק עצרו אותוhttps://t.co/mn1snzZjYr pic.twitter.com/95TSgy8KYS
— ZioNLight (@ZioNLight1)
Samaria Council Head Yossi Dagan commended the security forces for their decisive action and stated that “there was a great miracle here.”
“A major attack was avoided here tonight,” he declared, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “take offensive proactive action against the Palestinian Authority.”
“Due to Abu Mazen’s [PA head Mahmoud Abbas] incitement, there was almost a terrorist attack here. It was thwarted due to the alertness and heroism of the residents and soldiers, [but] the Israeli government should treat it as if it were a terror attack here,” he demanded.
Itamar has been the scene of several deadly terror attacks, including the slaughter of five members of the Fogel family in Match 2011 and the murder of the Shabo family in June 2002 the left the mother and three of her children dead and another two wounded. A member of the rescue team was also killed during the operation.
“We will get stronger. We will defeat terrorism, we will also build more, and this is our civilian response,” said Dagan,
“The military response should be under the direction of the government, a determined security action against the terrorists of the Palestinian Authority, headed by Abu Mazen,” he added.