Israel captures Palestinians who killed 3 in stabbing attack | Israel-Palestine conflict News
The two Palestinians were found near a quarry after a three-day manhunt following the attack in Elad near Tel Aviv.
Israeli forces have captured two Palestinians who killed three people in a stabbing attack last week and fled the scene near Tel Aviv.
“The two terrorists who murdered three Israeli civilians in the deadly attack in the city of Elad have been caught,” the police, army and domestic security agency said in a joint statement on Sunday following a huge manhunt.
The two Palestinians, identified as Asad Yussef al-Rifai, 19, and Subhi Imad Sbeihat, 20, were caught near a quarry not far from Elad by special force units using helicopters and other means, the statement added.
The stabbings on Thursday occurred on what Israel celebrates as its Independence Day.
For Palestinians, the anniversary of Israel’s 1948 declaration of independence marks the Nakba, or catastrophe, when at least 750,000 people were violently expelled from their homes and villages in historic Palestine.
Elad, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish town, is built on the remains of the Palestinian village al-Muzayriyah, which was ethnically cleansed and destroyed in July 1948.
According to Israeli forces, al-Rifai and Sbeihat wounded four others with a knife and an axe before bolting.
صورة …. تجمع منفذي عملية إلعاد، الصديقين صبحي صبيحات وأسعد الرفاعي من رمانة قضاء جنين pic.twitter.com/zhT1kVVr5q
— حسن اصليح | Hassan (@hassaneslayeh) May 8, 2022
Translation: A photo of the perpetrators of the Elad attack, the two friends Subhi Sbeihat and Asad al-Rifai from Rumanneh village, near Jenin.
Surge in tensions
The stabbing was the latest in a series of deadly assaults deep inside the country in recent weeks. It came as Israeli-Palestinian tensions were already heightened by violence and repeated incursions by Israeli forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
“We will continue to chase determinedly those who wish the worst upon us at all times, and we will reach them,” public security minister Omer Barlev said in a statement.
As forces scoured the area looking for the men, police called on the public to avoid the area, and urged Israelis to report suspicious vehicles or people.
Police said the attackers were from the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, which has re-emerged as a bastion in the latest wave of violence – the worst Israel has seen in years. Several attackers have come from Jenin.
Nearly 30 Palestinians have died in violence since March, including an unarmed woman and two bystanders. Rights groups say Israel often uses excessive force with little to no accountability.
At least 18 Israelis have been killed in five attacks, including another stabbing rampage in southern Israel, two shootings in the Tel Aviv area, and gunfire last weekend at an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank.
