Kibbutz security chief thwarts suspected terror attack

A Palestinian armed with a knife was arrested on Saturday after being subdued by local security at the entrance gate to Kibbutz Metzer in northern Israel.

Israeli police reported that around 2:15 p.m., a driver leaving the kibbutz spotted someone behaving suspiciously at the entrance. After confronting the individual, the driver quickly alerted the kibbutz’s security chief, who subdued the man until security forces arrived.

The suspect, 24, is a resident of Tulkarem, a Palestinian city abutting the Green Line in Israel’s Hefer Valley region, according to police.

The individual was then taken into custody by police and handed over to the Israel Security Agency.

“Police continue to secure the scene and conduct searches along the roads surrounding the kibbutz,” the Israel Police said in a statement.

Last month, the Israel Defense Forces thwarted a stabbing near the community of Shim’a, located south of Hebron in Judea.

A soldier stationed at the scene killed the terrorist.

In a separate incident on July 26, a security guard shot and neutralized a knife-wielding terrorist who had charged the entrance to Kibbutz Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion.

A day earlier, eight IDF soldiers were wounded in a vehicular assault at the Beit Lid/Hasharon Junction in central Israel. The assailant struck troops waiting at a bus stop on Route 57 at the entrance to Kfar Yona, located between Netanya and Tulkarem.

The driver fled immediately after the crash, leading security forces to shut down several Judea and Samaria crossings.

The terrorist was found several days later, hiding inside a construction site, not far from where he drove the car into the troops.

He was identified as Arkan Khaled, 27, from the nearby Arab-Israeli city of Tayibe.