Hamas claims and celebrates stabbing of Israeli in occupied West Bank

The Islamist group Hamas celebrated and claimed responsibility for a stabbing attack that injured an Israeli man in the occupied West Bank on Sunday morning. The attack occurred near the village of Al Auja, north of Jericho.

Hamas stated in a release via its channels that it praised the "heroic stabbing attack perpetrated by one of our heroes of the Palestinian people." The 24-year-old Israeli victim was reportedly attacked from behind as he was returning to his vehicle after visiting a shop. He was evacuated to Shaarei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem, where he remains in moderate, stable, and fully conscious condition.

Following the stabbing, the Israeli military launched an intensive search for the perpetrator, expanding the operation to nearby towns and the city of Jericho. This incident comes just one month after two Israelis were killed and four Palestinians died in a confrontation near the Palestinian village of Tel and the Israeli settlement of Havat Gilad.

That earlier event triggered a wave of retaliatory attacks by hundreds of Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages in the subsequent days. Early Sunday morning, Israeli media also reported the burning of a vehicle and a makeshift structure in the Palestinian town of Usarin, south of Nablus, an attack attributed to Israeli settlers. Hebrew graffiti reading "Revenge, 30 for Benayahu" was found at the scene, referencing one of the Israelis killed a month prior.

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We praise the heroic stabbing attack perpetrated by one of our heroes of the Palestinian people near the village of Al Auja, in the West Bank.