A 24-year-old yeshiva student from Jerusalem was fatally stabbed and three other Israelis were wounded Sunday morning when three Arabs from the West Bank attacked passengers aboard a bus north of Tel Aviv.
One of the assailants was killed and his two companions were wounded in the melee that followed the stabbings.
All of the injured were treated at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva, where the student, Baruch Eisler, died while undergoing surgery. He was buried in Jerusalem on Sunday evening.
The incident was the latest in a wave of revenge attacks by Arabs on Jews that began after the Oct. 8 Temple Mount riots, in which Israeli police killed at least 17 rioting Arabs.
Sunday’s incident followed by only a few hours a grenade attack in the heart of Tel Aviv’s on Saturday night, which might have caused high casualties had the grenade not failed to explode.
The hand grenade was tossed from a speeding car into crowded Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv’s main shopping and entertainment thoroughfare. Strollers and cafe patrons were promptly evacuated and the street was closed to traffic while police sappers safely dismantled the grenade. It was said to be a type used by terrorists.
The stabbings occurred on a No. 66 bus of the Dan line, which operates interurban service in the Tel Aviv area.
Eyewitnesses said three Arabs boarded the Petach Tikva-Tel Aviv bus near Tel Hashomer medical center and took seats on the rear bench.
NURSE BLAMES ISRAEL FOR STABBING
There were about 30 passengers on the bus at the time. As it passed an intersection between Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan, the Arabs suddenly shouted “Allah Akhbar” (God is Great) and stabbed the four passengers sitting directly in front of them.
The driver stopped the vehicle, fired his pistol into the air and pointed it at the three Arabs.
By chance, a police explosives expert carrying an Uzi submachine gun was riding in a vehicle behind the bus. When he saw the bus halt and heard the commotion, he raced toward it.
According to accounts, the policeman fired his Uzi once into the air as he approached the bus from the rear. One of the Arabs rose from his seat, brandishing a knife, and was shot to death by the policeman.
Another of the Arabs was wounded in the hand and the third was severely beaten by bus passengers before he was arrested.
Meanwhile, a Swedish volunteer nurse who was stabbed by an Arab youth two days ago in a hospital in Gaza has blamed Israel for the stabbing, the weekly Hadashot reported.
“My stabbing is undoubtedly a result of an Israeli conspiracy, intended to induce conflict between the Arabs of the territories — and the medical organizations that help them — and the world,” said Ingrid Udden, 28, who was attacked in Ahli Hospital, where she worked.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
