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Palestinian Stabs Israeli Soldier at Tel Aviv Train Station Palestinian Stabs Israeli Soldier at Tel Aviv Train Station
(35 minutes later)
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli soldier at a crowded Tel Aviv train station on Monday, the Israeli military said. It was the latest in a series of attacks highlighting the deterioration of Israeli-Palestinian relations in the aftermath of this summer’s war. JERUSALEM — A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli soldier near a crowded Tel Aviv train station on Monday, the Israeli military said. It was the latest in a series of attacks highlighting the deterioration of Israeli-Palestinian relations in the aftermath of this summer’s war.
Benzi Sau, the Tel Aviv police commander, said on Israel Radio that “an Arab from Nablus,” a large city in the occupied West Bank, attacked the soldier “several times with a knife and tried to grab and take his weapon.” The soldier was taken to the hospital in a critical condition, according to local news reports, and the man believed to be the assailant was arrested. Bentzi Sau, the Tel Aviv police chief, said on Israel Radio that “an Arab from Nablus,” a city in the occupied West Bank, attacked the soldier “several times with a knife and tried to grab and take his weapon.” The soldier was taken to the hospital in a critical condition, according to local news reports, and the man believed to be the assailant was arrested.
“We are treating this as a very serious incident,” Mr. Sau said. “I ask all civilians to stay alert and report any suspicious person, behavior or object.” “We are treating this as a very serious incident,” Chief Sau said. “I ask all civilians to stay alert and report any suspicious person, behavior or object.”
The stabbing, around noon on a busy street in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial and cultural center, immediately shook Israelis’ sense of security and revived memories of the violent second intifada, or Palestinian uprising. It came amid heightened tensions and violence that have spiraled out in recent days from Jerusalem to Arab towns in northern Israel. The stabbing, which occurred around noon in a bustling area of Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial and cultural center, immediately shook Israelis’ sense of security and revived memories of the violent second intifada, or Palestinian uprising. It came amid heightened tensions and violence that have spiraled out in recent days to Arab towns in northern Israel from Jerusalem.
Israeli media reported that 600 students marched Monday in Sakhnin, a Lower Galilee town of 25,000 not far from Kafr Kanna, where the Israeli police fatally shot a 22-year-old Palestinian man wielding a knife Friday night. The Kafr Kanna shooting had prompted stone-throwing protests and a one-day commercial strike by Israel’s Arab citizens, as well as much debate over their relationship to the state. Israeli news media reported that 600 students marched on Monday in Sakhnin, a Lower Galilee town of 25,000 not far from Kafr Kanna, where the Israeli police fatally shot a 22-year-old Palestinian man wielding a knife on Friday night. The Kafr Kanna shooting had prompted stone-throwing protests and a one-day commercial strike by Israel’s Arab citizens, as well as much debate over their relationship to the state.
President Reuven Rivlin of Israel referred to “these painful and tense days” in a column published Monday calling for the creation of “a new sphere of discourse.” President Reuven Rivlin of Israel referred to “these painful and tense days” in a column published on Monday calling for the creation of “a new sphere of discourse.”
“At these moments, we who live here on the soil of his land, Jews and Arabs, look at one another with suspicion intermingled with anger,” Mr. Rivlin wrote in Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s leading daily. “Now of all times we must ask ourselves, honestly and unbiasedly, whether this is the future we dreamed for our children.”“At these moments, we who live here on the soil of his land, Jews and Arabs, look at one another with suspicion intermingled with anger,” Mr. Rivlin wrote in Yediot Aharonot, Israel’s leading daily. “Now of all times we must ask ourselves, honestly and unbiasedly, whether this is the future we dreamed for our children.”
But Naftali Bennett, Israel’s economy minister and the leader of the ultranationalist Jewish Home Party, blamed the violence on President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, whom he called “a terrorist in a suit.”
“This is a grave attack that proves the concrete barricade concept has gone bankrupt,” Mr. Bennett said in a statement after Monday’s attack, referring to the wall Israel started erecting a decade ago to prevent the entry of West Bank Palestinians into Israel without a permit. “It is impossible to protect people on the street. Rather, you have to make sure that the inciters, firecracker-shooters and rioters sit in prison.”
The stabbing occurred at the Haganah train station, just off a busy highway. Witnesses said they saw a man with a red sweatshirt stab the soldier several times. “I got out of my car and saw him assaulting and stabbing the youth,” Gilad Goldman, who is in his 50s, was quoted as saying by Ynet, an Israeli news website. “I punched him in the face. He dropped the knife and began fleeing.”
A witness who was identified only as Yonatan told Israel Radio he watched the victim collapse and saw a lot of blood. Chief Sau, of the Tel Aviv police, said officers apprehended the suspect on the top of a four-story building about 200 yards away.
Maan, an independent Palestinian news agency identified the suspect as Nur al-Din Abu Hashya, 18, and said he lived in Askar, a large refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus.
Moshe Amir, a medic with the Magen David Adom ambulance crew, told Ynet that the soldier was about 20 years old and unconscious. “There was great confusion at the scene,” he said, according to the site. “We treated the victim and he was then evacuated in critical condition while undergoing resuscitation.”
The growing unrest has begun to have concrete political consequences for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. On Monday, one of Mr. Netanyahu’s most frequent critics from the right announced he would challenge the prime minister for the chairmanship of their Likud Party. The day before, a left-leaning minister resigned from Israel’s cabinet in protest at Mr. Netanyahu’s leadership.
While both the minister, Amir Peretz of the centrist Hatnua faction, and the Likud challenger, Danny Danon, have hardly hidden their differences from Mr. Netanyahu, the moves suggested a new level of rebellion that could reverberate through a governing coalition deeply divided on the Palestinian issue.
Mr. Netanyahu “seems to have lost his way,” Mr. Danon said Monday, adding that the prime minister ended this summer’s battle with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip too soon and had not done enough building in West Bank settlements. “We in the Likud elected the prime minister to represent our values, but instead he disengaged from our ideology.”
Mr. Peretz, a former member of the Labor Party who had been serving as environmental minister, attacked from the other direction, complaining about the lack of peace talks with the Palestinians.
“Netanyahu is not the solution, he is the problem,” Mr. Peretz said at a Sunday news conference. “Who is responsible for the despair in this country is no other than the prime minister.”