An terrorist's attempt to infiltrate the community of Yitzhar near Shechem was foiled Friday morning by the Samaria community's volunteer rapid response squad.
An IDF force identified that terrorist, who was armed with a rifle and a knife, trying to infiltrate the community's westernmost neighborhood, Shalhevet-Yah, from the direction of Arab village Assira a-Shimaliya. The volunteer first response squad was alerted. It identified the terrorist and gave chase but failed to catch him and he escaped into the Arab village.
The IDF Spokesman's Unit told media that it was looking into reports of the incident but did not confirm that it even took place.
A history of attacks
18 months ago, on 13 Elul 5768 (13.9.08) a similar attack took place in the same neighborhood, in which a terrorist burned down a residence, tried to enter a second home and stabbed a nine year old boy. The terrorist managed to escape then, and tried to infiltrate the village again a week later. He was then shot and killed.
Residents of Yitzhar noted that over the past two years, terrorists have been coming out of Assira regularly and engaging in arson and vandalism. They burned down Shalhevet-Yah residents' wheat fields, stole and sabotaged agricultural equipment and caused damage in hundreds of thousands on shekels.
The Yitzhar secretariat is livid over the IDF's response to the latest incident. “We express our amazement,” it stated, “at the fact that instead of dealing with the area's security, the IDF Spokesman prefers to doubt the veracity of the incident, although it was initially reported by an IDF force that identified the terrorist. The Spokesman chose to say 'the event is being looked into,' 'the facts are inconclusive' et cetera. It seems that the political and racist decision to issue construction freeze orders to civilians is causing some officers to lose their minds and think that their job is to protect the enemy.”