Witnesses to the combined stabbing/shooting attack at Ariel and Gitai junctions on Sunday morning spoke to Israel Hayom and described the moments of terror.
"He [the terrorist] fired a few shots and the next thing we saw was the wounded [man] fall. They told us to get behind the concrete barriers. We were really close to the event. They shot at IDF forces. It looked to me like there were two people there," one woman said.
Ezri Tuvi crossed Ariel Junction a minute after the incident.
"I saw the wounded Israeli in his car and I saw a body covered by a sheet. I gathered it had been terrible. The terrorist had gotten to the intersection on foot, stabbed a soldier who was on guard duty, and then stole his gun and shot him. Then the terrorist shot another Jew who was at the intersection and stole someone else's car," Tuvi said.
"It's frustrating. … This junction is guarded but what happens? A terrorist shows up and attacks the soldiers. This [was] one 'success' out of dozens of attempts made every week. It drives me nuts – generally, the incidents are prevented, and then they say that things are quiet. But there's no quiet – there are attacks all the time, they just don't succeed," Tuvi said.
Meanwhile, a resident of the nearby settlement Peduel told Israel Hayom that residents were not being allowed to leave the settlement.
"A little while ago we heard two explosions from the direction of [the Palestinian village] Bruqin, but for the moment we aren't being allowed to leave, no matter what," he said.
