Video of the week: Abbas’ Lies - http://tinyurl.com/yayv9pul
by Times of Israel staff and Jacob Magid July 22, 2017.
The family had gathered for a Friday night
Shabbat dinner to celebrate the birth that morning of a grandchild.
The Shabbat table was covered with a bright
white tablecloth, laden with snacks, bottles of cola and an unopened bottle of
whiskey. They were waiting for other guests to arrive, the door of their home
at the settlement of Halamish apparently open.
Instead, a 19-year old Palestinian, Omar
al-Abed, from a nearby village, burst in armed with a large knife and began
stabbing the members of the family. There were apparently 10 people in the
house when he entered.
He killed the grandfather of the family, Yosef
Salomon, 70, his daughter Chaya Salomon, 46, and son Elad Salomon, 36. His wife
Tova, 68, was seriously wounded and taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in
Jerusalem where she underwent surgery on Saturday morning. When she came out,
she was given the bitter news — her husband and two of their children were
dead.
The couple are survived by three other
children; it was the youngest who wife had given birth to the new grandchild
that morning.
As Abed continued to stab the victims, the
slain son’s wife managed to rush several small children to a nearby room and
lock the door. She called the police and screamed for help.
A neighbor, who serves in an elite IDF unit,
heard the cries and rushed over, shooting the terrorist through the window of
the house. Identified only as Sgt. A., from the IDF’s elite canine special
forces unit, the soldier said he heard the screams of the victims, ran to
the window of the house and shot and wounded the killer. “I understood
immediately what was happening — I saw the terrorist and shot him through the
window,” he said, according to Channel 2 news.“I understood the situation
thoroughly,” he repeated. “I shot into [the house] from outside. I didn’t think
a lot. I acted immediately.”
The terrorist was wounded by the shooting. Some
reports said that as medics tried to save the victims, he jumped up and tried
to attack them, before being subdued again. On Saturday afternoon Abed was
released from hospital and handed over to the security services for
questioning.
Ze’ev Schneider, who was visiting Halamish for
the weekend, told Israel Radio that his father was on his way to the family to
join the celebrations when the community’s alarm system sounded. Local security
told everyone to lock their doors and windows as the army carried out searches
for any further attackers.
Soldiers later went house to house in Halamish
making sure that no one was missing.
An initial investigation after the incident
showed that Abed had triggered an earlier alarm when he climbed over the fence
of the settlement, but the alarm only went off in the community security
control center. He managed to make into the house of his victims, some 150
meters from where he breached the fence, without being challenged.
The IDF was investigating how he managed to
walk the three kilometers (2 miles) from his village to Halamish without being
detected, and why the first alarm, when he breached the fence, was not conveyed
to the local security unit.
The army said it appeared Abed had posted a
Facebook post detailing his intention as he walked toward the community. He
reportedly had a Quran with him. Before crossing the fence, he apparently
performed some type of purification ritual, anticipating he would be killed.
Empty water bottles were found at the site.
In initial questioning, Abed said he bought the
knife two days ago, wanting to commit a terror attack because of events
surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile IDF forces early Saturday morning
raided the home of Abed and arrested his brother. Troops were searching the
village of Kobar for weaponry and suspects. They also mapped the Abed’s family
home in preparation for its likely demolition. An army official told Ynet the
19-year-old terrorist’s parents were known to be affiliated with the Hamas
terror group. Hamas hailed the attack late Friday as “heroic.”
Security forces have imposed a closure on
Abed’s village, and only humanitarian cases were being allowed through as the
operations inside continued.
Abed’s brother Monir, 21, was arrested.
Officials said they suspected Monir aided his brother in carrying out the
attack. Security forces said they were looking for any additional suspects in
the Halamish attack.
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