It has been a busy 24-hours for the IDF and Israel’s other security services; in separate operations they located and neutralized the terrorist perpetrator of the Barkan Industrial Zone shooting and one of the Ofra drive-by shooting terrorists.

The IDF, along with Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the Israel Police arrived at the place where the assailant was hiding, in Shechem (Nablus), Samaria. Although armed, the terrorist attempted to escape and was shot dead during the arrest.

The effort to find the assailant has been a long and labor-intensive. Although the attack at the Barkan Industrial Zone – in which Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel, 28, from Rosh Ha’ayin, and Ziv Hajbi, a 35-year-old father of three from Rishon Letzion, were killed at point-blank range having been tied up – occurred on October 7, the murderer has only now been tracked down. This followed an intensive intelligence effort on behalf of the Israel Security Agency along with the Yamam counter-terrorism unit and IDF units.

During the extensive manhunt, the perpetrator’s family was involved in attempting to protect him, including his brother hiding video security footage from security cameras in their home, to aid the escape.  

In November, the IDF partly demolished the terrorist’s home – the basement and ground floor – following the rejection of the family’s appeal against the order.

Late Wednesday night, IDF counter terrorism units entered the Palestinian Authority-controlled village of Surda near the PA capital of Ramallah, in an attempt to apprehend at least one of the terrorists who perpetrated the drive-by shooting at a bus stop in Ofra in Judea and Samaria. According to reports, one member of the terrorist cell was killed in the operation and another wounded.

The attack at Ofra left seven people wounded, including a heavily pregnant woman who was deliberately targeted and whose unborn baby had to be removed by doctors by Caesarean section. The woman’s husband was also wounded in the attack. The boy – whom the parents named Amiad – died last night in a Jerusalem hospital. A headline in an Israeli newspaper simply said, “Born Prematurely; Died Prematurely.”

Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said: “I salute the Yamam unit that together with the IDF and Shin Bet closed the account with the terrorist who killed Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi and also the terrorist involved in the Ofra shooting… “We will reach every terrorist, in any place he is hiding.”

In Jerusalem’s Old City, in the early hours of Thursday morning, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed two border police officers with a knife. The terrorist was shot and killed.

In Jerusalem’s old city, early hours of the morning, one terrorist stabbed two officers who responded. The terrorist was shot & killed. pic.twitter.com/yZhAwgsEc4

— Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) December 13, 2018