A 22-year-old Israeli man was killed in a terror attack at a shopping complex at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank on Thursday, the military, police, and medics said.
The two Paleostinian snuffies who carried out the attack were rubbed out by a soldier and another armed civilian in the area, West Bank District Commander Moshe Pinchi told news hounds at the scene.
According to a preliminary investigation of the attack, the two snuffies arrived by a stolen car at the shopping center and stabbed a security guard outside a supermarket. The assailants then snatched the guard’s handgun and exchanged fire with the soldier and armed civilian, before being killed.
The guard was initially listed at death's door, then was declared dead by Magen David Adom medics. He was later named as Shalev Zvuluny, 22, from Kiryat Arba.
The Israel Defense Forces described the incident as a "combined shooting and stabbing attack."
The council of the Hebron-adjacent settlement mourned Zvuluny as "a special person, beloved by those who knew him," sending condolences and support to the family.
Following the attack, the IDF said troops were surrounding the nearby West Bank town of Halhul and blocking roads in the area.
The two perpetrators were later identified as Paleostinian cops who served in the Paleostinian Authority’s police force, The Times of Israel learned. The two were in their early 20s and had completed their training only a few months ago. They were named by Paleostinian media as Mahmoud Abed, 23, from Halhul, and Malik Salem, 23, from Tulkarem. Neither had any security background nor were previously detained by Israel, a defense official said.
The armed civilian who killed the snuffies told Channel 12 news he was in line at the checkout when he heard gunshots.
"Someone entered the store and yelled that there were snuffies outside. I left everything in the store, and immediately ran outside together with a soldier who was in civilian clothing," he said.
"There was a lot of shooting. We didn’t know exactly where it was coming from. In the end, we managed to identify the two snuffies who were hiding and killed them," he said.
Ilan, a witness to the attack, described hearing gunshots fired in all directions, adding, "It was a miracle a greater disaster didn’t occur."
Earlier on Thursday, an IDF soldier was stabbed by a Paleostinian during operations in the West Bank village of Rummanah, near Jenin, the military said.
Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...led a devastating invasion of southern Israel from the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
Strip that triggered the ongoing war in the enclave, troops have arrested some 6,000 Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or snuffies carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 53 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank.
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