Two Israelis were wounded on Wednesday morning in a terrorist stabbing at the “tunnel road” checkpoint between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem.
Magen David Adom personnel treated a 19-year-old female member of the IDF Military Police and a 25-year-old male civilian security guard at the scene before evacuating them to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem in good-to-moderate condition.
According to police, a 15-year-old Palestinian who rode to the crossing on a bicycle drew a knife and stabbed security forces trying to question him.
IDF troops responded by fatally shooting the terrorist.
He was later identified as Mohamed Abu Hamed, from al-Khader, near Bethlehem.
“There are too many extremists trying to escalate the situation [during Ramadan],” said Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai during a tour of the attack scene.
Yesha Council chief and outgoing Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman said that Israel was “dealing with a nation whose main ritual during its most important holiday is to carry out terrorist attacks.
“The people of Israel will not be intimidated by these barbarians, nor will they sever our eternal connection to the Land of Israel,” he added.
In November, three Palestinian terrorists shot and killed 20-year-old IDF Cpl. Avraham Fetena and wounded five other members of the security forces at the same crossing.
Those terrorists were part of a Hamas cell and planned to perpetrate a much larger attack in Jerusalem.
On Tuesday evening, a Palestinian terrorist infiltrated the hilltop community of Givat Ronen in northern Samaria and attempted to stab a Jewish resident.
According to the Arutz 7 network, the terrorist pursued a resident and managed to get within 220 feet of the outpost’s playground before he was scared off by a resident’s dog. The military launched a search for the terrorist and set up roadblocks in the area.