Tel Aviv stabbing
Tel Aviv stabbingAssi Divlinsky, Magen David Adom

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has responded to the attack on a bus in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning, in which an Arab terrorist stabbed at least 12 people, seriously wounding three and moderately wounding four others, with an additional five lightly wounded.

"The attack is a direct result of the toxic incitement spread by the Palestinian Authority (PA) against Jews and their state," charged Netanyahu, joining other MKs who earlier placed the blame squarely on PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas's shoulders.

"The same terror tries to harm us in Paris, in Brussels and every other place," said Netanyahu. "Those rushing to welcome this act are Hamas, the unity government partner of Abu Mazen (Abbas). This is the same Hamas that said it will sue Israel in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague."

Ilanit, one of the passengers on the number 40 line Dan bus where the attack occurred, told Arutz Sheva about the horrific experience in which she saw the terrorist, a 23-year-old Arab attacker from Tulkarem in Samaria who was in Israel illegally, stab other passengers.

"I was on the bus - it was 7:30 in the morning," said Ilanit. "Suddenly I heard screams, and I suddenly saw someone next to the driver with a huge knife, stabbing the driver and stabbing the people, and people ran to the back and he ran after other people, and people were covered in blood."

Ilanit succeeded in escaping from the rear door of the bus that was pushed open.

"The bus continued driving and couldn't stop because the driver was wounded, somehow we opened the door by pushing and people fell out and ran for cover, and then I called the police; I saw horrific sights. We opened the door by pushing, it (the bus) was full of people and full of screams," she said.

The passenger on the ill-fated bus told Arutz Sheva she wasn't ready to travel to the hospital yet and preferred to stay at home to calm down from the harrowing experience.

"Now I ran from there directly home, how will I got to work like this; G-d protected me," she said. "From now on I'm afraid to ride a bus, I took a taxi home; what I want is to be at home, I didn't want to go to the hospital, I didn't want anything."

Describing her situation, Ilanit added "I was wounded a bit in the knees, maybe afterwards I'll go to Wolfson (Hospital), but now I want first of all to go home and calm down with my husband."

The attacker, after stabbing several more victims on the street, fled to an adjacent street where he was shot in the leg and arrested by the Israel Prisons Service's elite Nachshon unit, members of which happened to be driving behind the bus when the attack took place.

Netanyahu added "I just spoke with the head of the Israel Prison Service Nahshon unit, Menashe Ganish, and I praised the determined action by the unit's fighters, who saved many lives and prevented a worse attack."

"We will continue to take strong action against the terrorism that has been trying to attack us since the founding of the state, and we will see to it that it does not achieve its goal," concluded the prime minister.