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Photos:
Abdul-Wahab Khalayla, 20. Published by IMEMC News

The scene of a car ramming terror attack in Tel Aviv on June 4, 2023. (Miriam Alster/Flash90) Published by The Times of Israel

Police and rescue forces at the scene of a car ramming and stabbing terror attack in north Tel Aviv on June 4, 2023 (Miriam Alster/Flash90) Published by The Times of Israel
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by IMEMC News
July 4, 2023

According to Israeli sources, a Palestinian from the occupied West Bank reportedly rammed several Israelis with his car and stabbed one pedestrian before he was fatally shot dead by an Israeli civilian.

The sources said seven Israelis were injured in what they dubbed a car-ramming and a stabbing attack by the Palestinian on Pinchas Rosen Street in Tel Aviv before he was shot dead.

The Jerusalem Post said that, according to social media footage, the Palestinian was killed after he ran over several Israelis with a car and stepped out of the vehicle before stabbing one in the neck.

The Palestinian has been identified as Abdul-Wahab Khalayla, 20, from the As-Samou’ town, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.

The Jerusalem Post said an Israeli civilian at the scene fatally shot the Palestinian before paramedics arrived and started treating the wounded Israelis.

The Israeli Ynet News said a security camera footage shows the car the Palestinian was driving crashing into a bus stop, striking several Israelis, before he climbed out of the car window and chased onlookers while carrying a knife.

The Ynet quoted the police stating that the car veered onto the bicycle land and the sidewalk before striking pedestrians.

A video from the scene shows the Israeli executing the Palestinian by shooting at least three times, within a few seconds between each shot, after he was already shot and lying on the street bleeding.

Israeli daily Haaretz said one of the wounded Israelis is a pregnant woman, 46 years of age, who suffered serious wounds, two Israelis in their thirties sustained moderate wounds, and two were mildly injured due to the impact with the vehicle.

Haaretz quoted Tel Aviv Police District Commander Ami Eshed stating that the incident was a deliberate attack and that the Palestinian appears to have acted alone, but the police are trying to find out if he was accompanied by anybody else.

Haaretz also said that, according to the Shin Bet security service, the Palestinian “entered Israel without a permit, and had no security background.”

Shortly afterwards, the police detained several Paletinians believed to be involved in the incident and said that Abdul-Wahab’s background and affiliations are currently under investigation.

A few hours after the incident, the abducted his father and his brothers who work inside the Greenline.

The soldiers also closed the main entrances of the As-Samou’ town, south of Hebron, the hometown of the slain young man.

It is worth mentioning that the Israeli security agency first claimed Abdul-Wahhab’s brother, Hussein, was the slain Palestinian but later said the deceased is Abdul-Wahab.

On Tuesday dawn, Israeli soldiers killed a young Palestinian man, Odai Ibrahim Khamaisa, 22, in Jenin City, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, bringing the number of slain Palestinians in Jenin to ten on the second day of the Israeli offensive.

He was the nineth Palestinian the soldiers kill in Jenin, after the army killed eight earlier Monday, in addition to wounding more than 100, twenty seriously.

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the eight slain Palestinians as Samih Firas Abu Al-Wafa, 21, Aws Hani Hannoun, 19, Husam Mohammad Abu Theeba, 18, Noureddin Husam Marshoud, 16, Mohammad Mohannad Shami, 23, Ahmad Mohammad Al-Amer, 21, Ali Hani Al-Ghoul, 17, and Majdi Ar’arawi, 17.

The Israeli military spokesperson said Israel still has ten targets to achieve in its Jenin refugee camp offensive and said the soldiers have abducted about 120 young men.

In a press conference, the spokesperson said that the army estimated that there are 300 Palestinian fighters in Jenin and added that it has a list of names of about 160.

Hundreds of Palestinian families (approximately 3000 Palestinians) were displaced from their homes in the refugee camp and went to the nearby Jenin governmental hospital and mosques after the army ordered them to leave as it continues its offensive.

Israeli military bulldozers and missiles caused excessive damage to homes and buildings, and bulldozed streets, in addition to destroying cars, and blocking access to the refugee camp, and attacking ambulances, medics and journalists.

On Monday night, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death of a Palestinian teen, Mustafa Nidal Al-Qassem, 17, whom Israeli soldiers shot during the ongoing offensive on Jenin in the northern West Bank. The slain teen is the tenth Israeli soldier killed Monday; nine in Jenin and one near Ramallah.

Furthermore, the soldiers killed Mohammad Emad Hassanein, 21, at the entrance of the Al-Biereh city in the central West Bank.
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7 injured in ramming-stabbing attack in Tel Aviv; terrorist killed by armed civilian

Palestinian rams truck into pedestrians, gets out and begins stabbing spree; civilian who shot him: ‘I prayed gun would fire or else I was dead’; wounded pregnant woman loses child

By EMANUEL FABIAN for The Times of Israel
4 July 2023, 2:34 pm

Seven people were wounded, four of them seriously, in a car-ramming and stabbing terror attack in northern Tel Aviv on Tuesday afternoon, police and medics said.

According to police, the Palestinian assailant rammed his pickup truck into people on a sidewalk on Pinchas Rosen Street, then got out and stabbed others.

He was shot dead by an armed civilian.

Police spokesman Eli Levy said the incident was a terror attack.

Four of the victims were listed in serious and moderate-to-serious condition, the nearby Ichilov and Beilinson hospitals said. Another three were listed in moderate and good-to-moderate condition. One person was also brought to Ichilov after suffering acute anxiety.

One of the injured was a pregnant woman. She lost her child due to the severe wounds she suffered in the attack, Hebrew media reports said. It wasn’t immediately clear how advanced her pregnancy was.

The woman was hospitalized in serious condition.

A 30-year-old man was stabbed in the stomach, causing severe wounds, and rushed to Beilinson hospital for surgery.

Surveillance camera footage showed the moment the terrorist slammed into pedestrians at a bus stop. Moments later he was seen emerging from the vehicle and rushing at and stabbing passers-by and people who were sitting outside at a nearby cafe.

Another video clip circulating on social media showed an armed man wearing a motorcycle helmet shooting the assailant with a handgun multiple times, as well as kicking away a knife from his hand.

Kobi Yekutiel, the civilian who shot the attacker, told police, “I parked my motorcycle at the bus stop. As I was leaving the bus stop, I heard a loud noise. I thought it was a traffic accident.”

“The terrorist chased me. I shot him and he fell. My legs were shaking. I was praying that the bullet would fire, because if it didn’t I was dead,” he said.

Later, speaking to Channel 12, Yekutiel elaborated: “I saw him come out [of the car] with a knife — someone huge, big, a really frightening person — and stab the first person he met near the car. I thought it’s a fight between drivers.”

But then, he said, the penny dropped as the terrorist “left the victim and started running at others to stab them… I pulled out the gun, he saw me. He started running toward me. There was another elderly man near me. I took a few steps back to cock the gun. As he came near me I took him out. He still didn’t fall. He continued to try to stab the man who was by me… so I hit him with another shot, and then he sat down and I took him out with two more bullets.”

Witnesses to the attack expressed shock at the violence on the quiet street.

“I was behind the building and I heard a few gunshots,” a witness named Lee told Channel 12. “It’s a new area. There are restaurants and cafes. Two meters from the attack there’s a big kindergarten.”

A worker at a restaurant in the area told Channel 12, “We heard a boom. We thought it was a traffic accident. Then we heard gunshots and hid.”

“These are scenes you don’t expect to see. We evacuated the victims quickly,” said a medic with the Hatzalah emergency services group.

The Shin Bet security agency said the terrorist who carried out the attack did not have an entry permit to Israel.

The agency in a statement named the terrorist as Abed al-Wahab Khalaila, 20, from the West Bank town of as-Samu, in the South Hebron Hills area.

Earlier reports by Hebrew-language media incorrectly named him as Hussein Khalaila, 23, apparently a relative who did have a permit to enter Israel for medical care.

The Shin Bet said Khalaila had no known prior security offenses.

Hebrew media reports said he had been employed in Tel Aviv, and had used his employer’s car for the attack. Haaretz said he told his employer he was going out to buy supplies before the attack.

It wasn’t immediately clear how he had been working in Israel, without an entry permit.

The Hamas terror group said Khalaila was a member but stopped short of claiming responsibility for the attack.

The attack came as the Israeli military was carrying out a major operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

The IDF operation came after a series of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis killed 24 people since the start of this year. Many of the attackers came from Jenin and its environs.

On Monday, in another suspected terror attack, a Palestinian teenager stabbed and lightly hurt an Israeli man in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak.