An Israeli teenager was seriously injured on Saturday morning when he was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant during a visit with his father to a dentist near the Palestinian city of Qalqilya in Samaria.
Liber Perez, 17, sustained multiple stab wounds to his upper body in the attack, while his father, Yosef Perez, 60, was lightly wounded in the arm. Both men are residents of Ofakim in southern Israel.
“For a year now, I have been coming to this dentist for treatment and everything was fine,” said Yosef Perez. “I never thought something like this would happen.”
On Saturday, Yosef, his son and his brother were on a visit to the dentist when a youth, reportedly 15 years old, stopped them and demanded to know whether they were Jewish. In an interview with Walla news, Yosef’s brother said they told the young man in Arabic that they were not Jews, but Yosef told Channel 12 news that they told him that they were.
The youth then allegedly drew a knife and stabbed Yosef in the arm.
Liber then pushed his father away in an effort to protect him “and quickly jumped on [the terrorist] with his head down,” Yosef told Walla. “[The terrorist] took advantage of his position and started to stab him in his back.”
Yosef said that the dentist, who was identified only as a Dr. Amin, fought to save them.
“The dentist helped us; he jumped on him and held him against the wall and hit him while we escaped,” the father said.
Palestinian media reports indicate that the terrorist’s father was detained by Israeli security forces. According to Israeli media reports, the suspect turned himself in to Palestinian Authority police.
Liber and Yosef were brought to the Eliyahu border crossing, and evacuated to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba after receiving first aid from Israel Defense Forces’ medics.
Liber, who was listed in moderate but stable condition, is the fifth Israeli teenager to be targeted by P.A. terrorists in approximately a month.
Last month, 17-year-old Rina Shnerb was killed and her 19-year-old brother, Dvir, injured when an improvised explosive detonated as they hiked with their father in Samaria.
Earlier in the month, brother and sister Nahum and Noam Nevis, 17 and 19, respectively, were targeted by a Palestinian who rammed them with his car outside their hometown of Elazar. Nahum was seriously hurt, suffering a head injury.
Prior to that, 18-year-old yeshivah student and IDF enlistee Dvir Sorek was stabbed to death outside the towns of Migdal Oz and Efrat.
