Terrorist neutralized in Eli attack
Elisha Antman, 17, Harel Masoud, 21, Ofer Fairman, 60, and Nachman Shmuel Mordoff are the four Israelis slain in the deadly terror strike near Eli on Tuesday. An initial investigation by the Israel Defense Forces revealed that three killed while dining at Hummus Eliyahu Restaurant at the gas station when they were killed, and the fourth was murdered while filling his car with gas. Antman was a 12th-grade student at the Bnei Akiva Eli yeshiva high school and a resident of Eli. Masoud was a resident of Yad Binyamin. Fairman, 60, also lived in Eli.
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Aviad Gadot, who witnessed the deadly shooting attack near the Eli settlement in the northern West Bank, tweeted Tuesday "My brother flanked one terrorist and shot him with 10 bullets until he fell." Four people were murdered in the attack, and according to the MDA emergency medical services, they were pronounced dead at the scene – a gas station on Route 60. Four other people were injured and taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikva and Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
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Harel Masoud, victim of terror attack near settlement of ELi
(Photo: Nadav Goldstein/TPS )
Gadot added: "My brother is the hero. A gas station in Eli. Filling up tires with air. The children in the car. Suddenly a car with Arabs 15 meters from them. A suspicious look. His son wanted to inflate the tires with him, but my brother was suspicious and asked him to stay in the car. Suddenly their car doors open and they jump out with an M16 and start to shoot. To murder Jews. The children lie down on the floor of the car."
According to Gadot, they are now recovering from the incident. We and our children have been abandoned to an enemy armed with IDF weapons," he said. "There is no Minister of Defense, there is no General of the Central Command. It's just you or the enemy in a split second. Absolute madness, orphans, widows and unknown heroes."
Moise Moral, 27, who was injured in the attack and was one of the citizens who shot and killed the terrorist, said from the hospital: "I heard gunfire from the gas station area and then I heard a bunch of gunshots. I went to the gas station," he said. "When I got to the gas station I saw the terrorist, I saw him come to the car where a man was sitting, and he fired into it. I opened the door and shot him, he shot me. Until he stopped moving, I didn't stop shooting."
The two terrorists who carried out the attack and were killed arrived in a black Chevrolet, got out, and opened fire using standard M-16 rifles, "There are knives in the car," a man present on the scene said. Dudu Israeli, an ambulance driver, said that "I was at the entrance to a gas station and I heard a shot. We noticed that one of the terrorists escaped and the other was killed, immediately after that I performed initial medical treatment on the wounded, including stopping the bleeding together with other teams that arrived later."
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IDF Chief of Staff Herzi during a situation assessment at the scene of the attack
(Photo: IDF Spokesman's Unit)
MDA medic Moti Dahan said that: "We received a report at MDA's 101 hotline about a shooting attack at the gas station near Eli. We arrived at the gas station and saw a terrible scene. Seven people suffered from gunshot wounds, some at the gas station and some at a nearby restaurant. We began to administer medical treatment, three of the injured were evacuated by MDA intensive care vehicles to the hospitals and unfortunately, we had to pronounce the death of four victims."
Liz Gorall, an MDA paramedic, said the man suffering from serious injuries was brought to the intensive care ambulance that was near the settlement. "We urgently evacuated him to Beilinson Hospital while giving him life-saving medical treatment that included placing an arterial block and giving medication to stabilize his condition," she said.
"We arrived at the settlement's gate and encountered the first injured person. This is a person who tried to neutralize the terrorist, another paramedic said. "He suffered gunshot wounds to his lower limbs. We then realized the size of the event. We realized that there were two shooting locations, the main gate and the restaurant. There were eight injured, four who were dead, and four others suffering various injury levels. All suffered gunshot wounds. We evacuated them to the hospitals. These are very difficult scenes."
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Moise Moral is one of the wounded in the attack on Eli
(Photo: Beilinson Hospital Spokesman)
Eli settlement chairman Ariel Elmaliach said that "Unfortunately, we are after a very difficult incident at the gas station here, on Route 60, which is near our settlement, Eli. A terrorist squad entered the station and basically attacked passers-by and gas station customers and unfortunately, there are also dead and injured. I call on the government to stop this incompetence and continue to attack these terrorists everywhere. Just stop the hand-wringing. Start a new Defensive Shield operation. We are exhausted. It's time to put an end to this."
The head of the Binyamin Regional Council Israel Ganz said social services were with the families of the victims and the wounded in hospitals. "The settlements in the West Bank in general and Binyamin in particular, are strong and will continue to be strong," he said. "I want to say a big thank you to all the residents who are supporting us, to all the workers. We will get through this event, and we will deal with it in the future."
Shlomo Ne'eman, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council and chairman of the Council of settlements said he was demanding government action. "We embrace the families of the murdered at this difficult time and pray for the healing of the wounded. The enemy raised his head and must be eliminated. We must not continue to absorb this and hope that the wave will pass. We demand that the government launch a broad operation," he said. "The IDF must take off its gloves because only dealing with terrorism with a heavy hand, along with the continued construction and development of the Jewish settlement, will restore peace to the region."
The head of the Beit El local council, Shai Alon, agreed. "Another shooting, another horrific murder and another terrible and terrible pain. The heart aches and refuses to contain the insane reality of repeated attacks, more deaths and many bereaved families," he said. "It is impossible to continue to contain the dead, to allow the terrorists to have weapons and slaughter us like sitting ducks. I call on the government not to give up and to start a broad operation to eradicate the many illegal weapons in the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority."
The condition of one of the four injured is defined as serious but stable, two others are in moderate condition and one more is slightly injured. One of the terrorist was killed on the scene, and a second terrorist was killed two hours later near the Palestinian village of Tubas.
First published: 19:58, 06.20.23