17 injured, 4 critical in TA terror attack

OWN CORRESPONDENT

Four victims, including the driver, remained in serious condition following the Wednesday morning attack. Three were “moderately” injured, six “lightly” and the rest suffered from anxiety.

According to a preliminary investigation, the assailant boarded the bus at the Old Central Bus Station, a short distance from the scene of the attack. After the bus passed two stops and more passengers got on, the attacker took out a knife and started stabbing people.

Given that the perpetrator bought the knife in the West Bank, he will be brought before a military court in Ariel. As he is still in hospital with the wound to his leg, he wasn’t taken to court on Wednesday. His detention will be extended by 96 hours.   

RIGHT: Picture courtesy MDA

The assailant, a 23-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Tulkarem, who had entered Israel illegally, was shot in the leg by a member of Israel’s Prison Service who was at the scene of the attack. He was apprehended by police.

The attack occurred at approximately 07:00 while it stopped at a major intersection. It is the first terror attack in Tel Aviv since an assailant killed a soldier in a stabbing attack at a train station last October.

Bus driver Herzl Biton, 55, a bus driver for more than 23 years, fought with the assailant and sprayed him with pepper spray as he was being stabbed twice in the chest. He is in a moderate condition in Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital. Other injured were taken to the Sheba Medical Centre at Tel Hashomer where seven were admitted for treatment and undergoing surgery.

Biton reportedly called a friend right after the attack and said: “A terrorist attacked me, I feel like I’m going to die. Please, look after my kids.”

Tel Aviv Police Commander Bentzi Sau called the attack a “nationalist incident” and praised Biton for having an “excellent reaction” to the stabbing.

“The attack in Tel Aviv is the direct result of the poisonous incitement spread by the Palestinian Authority toward the Jews and their state. The same terror tries to harm us in Paris, Brussels, and everywhere,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement following the attack.

Tel Aviv District Police Commander Bentzi Sau said the terrorist “began the attack immediately after boarding the bus”, and added that “after he hurt the driver he continued to stab other passengers”.

He then fled the bus and was chased by a group of Israel Prison Service (IPS) guards who were in the area taking a prisoner to a local court.

Benny Butershvilli, the commander of the forces from the IPS Nachshon Unit, said the guards noticed something was wrong after they saw the bus standing at a green light. Shortly afterwards, the terrorist got out of the bus on foot and attempted to flee and the prison guards began to chase him.

“At Beit Maariv Bridge we saw people crowding and others calling for help; we immediately understood that something was wrong,” Butershvilli said.

“A team of three fighters from the Nachshon unit and I jumped out of our car, spotted the terrorist and began chasing him. We fired at his feet and he collapsed. We then cuffed him and waited for the police to come.

“The Nachshon unit fighters operated with professionalism and determination just as is expected of them and of any security officer in uniform,” said Lt Gen Aharon Franco, chief commissioner of the IPS.

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich praised the driver and forces’ “quick and effective response: This is exactly the way people should respond when a terrorist is running rampant and attempting to harm innocent passengers.”

Hamas praised the attack as a “heroic and courageous act”.

The attack comes amid growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians which has seen violence escalate in recent months.