Israeli injured in ramming, ax attack in Haifa

An Israeli man was seriously wounded on Monday in a car-ramming and stabbing terrorist attack near a naval base in the northern city of Haifa.

According to reports, a car drove into the 20-year-old man, after which the perpetrator got out and attacked him with an ax.

Magen David Adom emergency medical personnel treated the victim for injuries to his lower body before evacuating him to Rambam Medical Center in the city.

The hospital’s deputy director-general, Dr. Avi Weissman, said the victim was sedated and intubated in the trauma center, and would undergo a series of surgeries.

Soldiers stationed at the base shot and neutralized the terrorist, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The terrorist was identified as Wassim Abu al-Hoga, an Arab Israeli from Tamra in the Lower Galilee. Al-Hoga had a criminal record for illegally transporting people—presumably Palestinians—into the Jewish state, the Israel Police said in a statement.

Two weeks ago, 79-year-old Edna Blustein was killed and 17 other people were wounded in a combined car-ramming and stabbing attack in the central city of Ra’anana.

Police arrested two Palestinian suspects, identified as Mahmoud Zidat, 44, and his nephew, Ahmed. Both were residents of Bani Naim, near Hebron. Despite not having work permits and being blacklisted from entering Israel by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) as security risks, the two men had jobs at a Ra’anana car wash.

Earlier Monday, Israel Defense Forces troops foiled a Palestinian stabbing attack between Efrat and Tekoa in the Gush Etzion region of Judea.

According to reports, security personnel shot and neutralized the 16-year-old terrorist.

No Israelis were injured in the attack.

Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 persons living near the Gaza border, Israeli security forces have arrested more than 2,650 wanted Palestinian terrorism suspects in Judea and Samaria, of whom around 1,300 are associated with Hamas.