Tamir Avichai

November 15, 2022: Tamir Avichai, 50, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian attacker in the illegal Israeli colony of Ariel.

The alleged Palestinian attacker was shot and killed by an Israeli security guard after he killed three Israeli settlers.

Israeli sources reported Tuesday that three Israelis were killed and three were injured in two areas before Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian near Ariel illegal colony near Salfit, in the central part of the occupied West Bank. The incidents occurred in two locations near Ariel when two Palestinians attacked Israeli colonizers at the entrance of the Industrial Zone and a gas station.

Israeli sources identified the three Israelis who were killed as Tamir Avichai, 50, from Kiryat Netafim colony in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, Michael Ledigin, 36+, from Bat-Yam, and Mordechai Ashkenazi, 59, from Yavne.

According to a statement by the Israeli army, a Palestinian arrived at the gate of the Industrial Zone in Ariel and stabbed several Israelis before fleeing the scene. The army denied reports claiming that a second Palestinian was killed. However, it stated that the soldiers were looking for another suspect in the area.

Israeli Ynet News reported that the Palestinian allegedly stabbed a security guard at the gas station’s entrance, then attacked four others with a knife before using a vehicle to escape, ramming one Israeli with the car before soldiers and armed guards opened fire in his direction.

The Israeli media added that a Palestinian fled the scene in a stolen car and was located by the soldiers on Route 5, where they shot and killed him, and said the young man first tried to flee the scene, resulting in a crash involving eight cars before he was fatally shot.

According to Israeli Channel 7, one of the Israelis, in his 40s, died from critical wounds, a second man, also in his 40’s, was wounded at the gas station and succumbed to serious wounds, and the third, in his 30’s, was fatally injured near the gas station.

Channel 7 added that three other Israelis suffered critical or serious wounds and were taken to the Beilinson Medical Center in Petah Tikva.

The Palestinian has been identified as Mohammad Morad Sami Souf, 18, from Haris town near Salfit in the central West Bank.

According to Israeli reports, Mohammad had a permit and worked at a factory in Ariel.

Israeli paramedics rushed to the area, provided treatment to the wounded, and transferred them to Beilinson Medical Center before three of them succumbed to their wounds; three Israelis suffered serious wounds.

The day before this attack, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that Israeli soldiers killed, at dawn, a teenage girl, Folla Rasmi Abdul-Aziz Masalma, 16, in Betunia town after shooting her with a live round in the head while she was a passenger in a car.

Tamir was from Kiryat Netafim colony in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. Source: IMEMC