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In the last week, two more terrorist attacks have taken place in Israel, bringing the death toll up to 19 people since the 21st March.
On Friday night, Israeli Security officer Vyacheslav Golev, aged 23, was killed whilst shielding his fiancée from a Hamas-claimed shooting in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. Last night three civilians were murdered and several others seriously injured when two terrorists, who are still on the run, attacked them with a knife and an axe in the central Israeli city of Elad during the end of the Israeli Independence Day celebrations.
So far no one has been arrested in connection with the stabbing attack last night, however a manhunt is still underway to capture the suspects. The security services have named the Arab-Israeli suspects as As’ad Yousef As’ad al-Rifa and Subhi Abu Shqeir, aged 19 and 20 from the villages on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Jenin. Initial reports have suggested that they entered Israel illegally through a breach in the security barrier with the West Bank.
According to Israeli officials, unlike the assailants from the attacks earlier last month, neither man has served any jail time and is not thought to be affiliated with any terror organisation.
UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss shared her support for Israel, tweeting that she is “appalled” by the occurrence of another terror attack in Israel, and once again stated that “the UK stands with the Israeli people against terrorism”.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the latest attack, but his party has reportedly been openly proclaiming and celebrating violence in recent week. The official PA WAFA news agency reported that President Abbas stated that “the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads to a further deterioration of the situation, at a time when we all strive to achieve stability and prevent escalation”.
The last seven weeks have seen the latest wave of deadly acts of terror, which included the largest number of deaths in one week since the 2006 suicide bus bombing that killed 11 people. The initial attacks were also condemned by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well as by the Foreign Ministers of the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt who were, at the time, in Israel for the Negev Summit.
