Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Israeli forces kill shooter of IDF soldier, rabbi near Ariel

Omar Amin Abu Lila, 19, was killed during a shootout with Israeli forces in Abwein, a village just outside Ramallah, after the special units surrounded the house where he was hiding.

Israel Defense Forces soldiers on the hunt for the suspected terrorist behind the March 17, 2019 terrorist attack outside of Ariel that led to the deaths of an IDF soldier and an a rabbi and father of 12. Credit: IDF Spokesperson Unit.
Israel Defense Forces soldiers on the hunt for the suspected terrorist behind the March 17, 2019 terrorist attack outside of Ariel that led to the deaths of an IDF soldier and an a rabbi and father of 12. Credit: IDF Spokesperson Unit.

Israeli special units on Tuesday shot dead a Palestinian suspected of stabbing and killing 19-year-old Sgt. Gal Keidan, stealing his gun, and using it to fire at Israeli soldier Alexander Dvorsky and Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger outside the city of Ariel on Sunday.

The Shin Bet announced the development.

Omar Amin Abu Lila, 19, was killed during a shootout with Israeli forces in Abwein, a village just outside Ramallah, after the special units surrounded the house where he was hiding.

No Israelis were hurt in the mission.

As of Tuesday morning, Dvorsky, who is being treated at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, showed significant improvement and is considered to be out of immediate danger.

Despite being shot in the neck and head, Ettinger, a 47-year-old yeshivah dean and father of 12 from Eli, turned his car around and begin firing at Abu Laila with his personal sidearm in the hopes of neutralizing the ongoing threat to passersby.

Ettinger was also evacuated to Beilinson, but succumbed to his wounds on Monday morning. He was buried in Petach Tikvah in a funeral attended by more than 1,000 people, including students from his yeshivah, Oz V’Emunah in the Neve Sha’anan neighborhood of South Tel Aviv.

Abu Laila’s father and brother were arrested in connection with the attack.

Kaidan was buried in the military cemetery of Beersheva on Monday by his parents, who are immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union, and his two older brothers.

Sgt. Noam Hamburger, 23, was a technology and maintenance specialist in the IDF’s 401st Brigade.
“We are in the stage of finalizing this memorandum of understanding, focused on ending the war,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
We would encourage him to self-deport before he is never ⁠given a chance to return, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson says.
The IDF will continue to remove any immediate threat, the army said.
The Iraqi militia commander was extradited to the U.S. from Turkey over connection to terrorist attacks on Jewish targets.
To bring about the terrorist organization’s complete collapse, Israel must employ both civilian and territorial leverage.