Off Topic – Soldier stabbed to death in his sleep by Palestinian on bus
Soldier stabbed to death in his sleep by Palestinian on bus | The Times of Israel.
Eden Atias, 19, suffers fatal wounds to the neck in attack at Afula; passengers capture 16-year-old killer, who was in Israel illegally
November 13, 2013, 8:53 am Updated: November 13, 2013, 11:06 am
Eden Atias, 19, who was stabbed to death on a bus in Afula, Wednesday, November 13, 2013 (photo credit: Facebook)
An Israeli soldier died after he was stabbed multiple times in the neck Wednesday morning by a Palestinian youth on a bus at the central bus station in Afula.
The soldier, 19-year-old Eden Atias of Nazareth Illit, was evacuated to the city’s Haemek Hospital. Doctors operated on him in an attempt to stabilize his condition but he succumbed to his injuries a few hours later.
Eyewitnesses said Atias was sleeping in his seat on the bus when he was attacked.
Passengers on the bus, which was en route from Nazareth Illit to Tel Aviv and had stopped at the Afula station, captured the stabber and turned him over to security guards, who in turn delivered him to police.
“The bus stopped for a break and the few passengers had stepped out,” Yaffa Mara, who works in a candy store nearby, told Haaretz. “Only the terrorist and two soldiers stayed on board. Suddenly I saw one of the soldiers run out and she yelled that the other soldier had been stabbed. The terrorist tried to flee out the back door but border policemen caught and arrested him. The soldier was covered in blood. It was a terrible sight.”
Atias enlisted only two weeks ago and was still in basic training. He was traveling to his base on Wednesday morning after a sick leave. He was survived by his parents and two brothers, aged 24 and 18. His mother, Ilia, was quoted by Walla as saying that he had insisted on volunteering for a combat unit.
A bloodstained bus seat where soldier Eden Atias, 19, was stabbed to death by a young Palestinian man on a bus at the central bus station in Afula (photo credit: Avishag Shaar Yashuv/Flash90)
The suspect is a 16-year-old Palestinian resident of Jenin who did not have a permit to work or reside in Israel, according to police.
Police’s Northern District Commander Roni Atti said “police had no specific alerts regarding the attack, though general warnings exist at all times. The terrorist boarded the bus and it is unclear whether he originally intended to commit the stabbing or if he was on his way to work. He eventually stabbed the soldier sitting beside him.”
“We heard shouting in the bus, and screaming,” Tomer, a worker at a nearby kiosk who witnessed the attack, told Yedioth Ahronoth. “Soldiers then jumped [the attacker], I saw them take him off the bus and then security guards waited with him. He looked like a child.”
Defense officials and analysts have warned in recent weeks that the West Bank may be heading for another violent uprising, citing a rise in the number of rock-throwing and Molotov cocktail attacks.
On Monday, former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said the Palestinians were ripe for a third intifada. However, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that recent attacks were isolated incidents, insisting that “there is no sign of a popular uprising or so-called third intifada.”
Soldiers at the Afula central bus station in 2009 (photo credit: Rishwanth Jayapaul/Flash90)
Afula, located some 10 kilometers (6 miles) inside the Green Line in the Jezreel Valley, has been hit by multiple terror attacks over the years. In a 2001 shooting in the city’s central bus station, where Wednesday’s stabbing occurred, three people were killed and 18 were wounded.
Last month, a Palestinian man pulled a knife on a public bus outside Jerusalem and threatened passengers before fleeing the scene.
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