A security officer shot & killed 2 Palestinian terrorists outside a neighborhood market after they stabbed 2 women leaving one in serious condition & the other in moderate condition.
• 2 unexploded pipe-bombs were discovered near the scene of attack.
• WATCH: Cashier used shopping cart to stop terrorists from entering store, potentially saving the lives of those who were inside.

By BEN HARTMAN,  TOVAH LAZAROFF,  YAAKOV LAPPIN

Two Palestinian terrorists stabbed two Israeli women and threw three unexploded pipe bombs at a grocery store in the West Bank settlement of Beit Horon on Monday night.

Cashier Mordechai Shalem used a large metal shopping cart to stop the attackers from entering the store, thereby saving the lives of those who were inside.The assailants fled from the store in the direction of homes in the settlement. Within moments, a security guard shot and killed them.

The commander of the Binyamin police station, Chief Superintendent David Hayun, said the attack on the community located just off of Route 443, signified “a serious escalation.” These two attackers infiltrating a settlement armed with knives and explosives, and succeeded in stabbing two victims, Hayun said.

They jumped over the Beit Horon security fence near a grocery store and stabbed a 23-year-old woman, leaving her critically wounded. She lost consciousness at the scene.

Doctors at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Mount Scopus neighborhood are now fighting to keep her alive.

They then stabbed and moderately wounded a 58-year old woman in the upper part of her body. She is now being treated in the capital’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Witnesses who saw the attack ran into the store screaming, “terrorist, terrorist.”

There were children and women in the store, Shalem recalled for Channel 2. Determined not to let them in, he immediately blocked them with a shopping cart. He pushed the cart at them several time and did not budge, even though they had drawn knives. The dramatic moments were caught on the store’s security camera.

“It was frightening. Two people were standing next to me with knifes. I could see the hate and the anger,” he said. “They screamed Alou Akbar and I said, ‘dogs get out of here,” Shalem said.

After a couple seconds they ran away, he said.

“It was a clear miracle,” Shalem added, not wanting to imagine what would have happened if they had entered the store.

The slain terrorists were identified as Ibrahim Yusef Allan, 23, from the village of Bet Ur Al-Tahta and Hussein Abu Gosh, 17, from the Kalandiya refugee camp. The IDF cordoned off the village of Beit Ur Atahta on Monday night, allowing only humanitarian passage in and out of the community, an army spokeswoman said.

Following the attack, President Reuven Rivlin issued a statement of solidarity with the victims.

“My thoughts and prayers are with those wounded and fighting for their lives after the severe terror attack at Beit Horon. “These difficult times are fraught with confrontation and we will overcome. We will continue to fight against terrorism and the incitement which drives it. In the face of terror, we choose life,” Rivlin added.

It’s the third successful attack within a settlement in the last eight days. Last Sunday, a terrorist stabbed to death a mother of six, Dafna Meir, in her home in the Otniel settlement. A day later, a terrorist stabbed and wounded Michal Froman, who was five months pregnant, in the Tekoa settlement.

Security forces have been on heightened alert around settlements since last week, following the successive knife attacks in Otniel and Tekoa, and earlier assessments that terrorists could increasingly attempt to infiltrate communities and carry out attacks.

Details of the Bet Horon attacks, which are being handled by Border Police, have not yet been fully verified.

However, according to security sources, in recent days the IDF took a number of steps to boost security in the settlements, out of a concern that copycat attackers would seek to emulate the ‘success’ of last week’s terror attacks.

Additionally, the IDF called on all civilians with gun licenses living beyond the Green Line to be armed.

In December, a military source said the army was preparing for a significant escalation in the severity of West Bank terror attack, and was preparing to encounter increased firearms attacks, as well as attempted intrusions by armed attackers into West Bank settlements.

Khaled Abu Toameh contributed to this report.
View original The Jerusalem Post publication at:
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Breaking-Two-wounded-in-suspected-terror-stabbing-in-Binyamin-region-442725