Police prevented a huge catastrophe by stopping a Palestinian Authority terrorist who wounded eight people at a Tel Aviv nightclub patronized by approximately 2,000 young people.
Border Police had been preparing for terrorist attacks, and their presence enabled them to stop the terrorist, hailing from Shechem (Nablus) in the Shomron (Samaria), before he could continue his assault with a knife.
The police “prevented a big disaster,” said Police Commander Yochanan Danino.
Dozens of police officers brought down the terrorist, age 25, after he hijacked a taxicab, wounding its driver, and was surprised by a police roadblock, which he slammed into. He then drove on for another half a mile. He then reached a nightclub holding approximately 2,000 young people at a party and continued knifing his victims for a short while until police, alert to his presence and therefore out in numbers, apprehended him.
One Border Police officer suffered wounds in his neck, and the taxi driver was cut on his hands when he tried to yank the knife away from the terrorist.
All of those wounded suffered light to moderate injuries.
The Palestinian Authority has not commented on the terrorist attack. Shechem, from where the terrorist arrived, is under control by the Palestinian Authority, which is committed to dismantling the terrorist infrastructure.
"The incident was further proof of the motivation of terrorists to attack," Danino said.
The attack still is under investigation, but the Public Security Minister said that the terrorist appears to have acted on his own, bearing out warnings from intelligence officers that “lone terrorists,” without direct involvement of a terrorist organization, are prepared to carry out attacks at any time throughout the country.
A high alert against terror is in effect along the southern border.