"'At the time of his arrest, [the man] shouted Allah Akbar. However, the motive is not confirmed and the investigation will have to determine it ,'" the La Rochelle public prosecutor told Le Figaro, according to GMT. French media also reported the man tried to ignite gas cylinders inside his car. Mr Laraize, a prosecutor, stated this claim is being verified and that the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office is "'not involved at this stage'."

French President Emmanuel Macron is monitoring the incident while en route to Brazil, BFMTV reported. The suspect, cited by GMT, is a 35-year-old man from La Cotinière, a village near Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron.

The mayor of Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron, Christophe Sueur, informed Le Parisien the suspect is "'known for his numerous transgressions, notably due to his regular consumption of drugs and alcohol,'" and is not on a terror radicalization list. The attack on Wednesday morning, which occurred between Dolus-d'Oléron and Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron, injured both pedestrians and cyclists.

Victims of the attack were airlifted to the University Hospital of Poitiers. French media also noted that a psychological support unit was established at Château d'Oléron.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez confirmed the incident on X, stating: "'A motorist struck several pedestrians and cyclists on his route in Saint Pierre d´Oléron and Dolus d'Oléron. The suspect has been taken into custody by the gendarmes. An investigation has been opened." He added, "'At the request of the Prime Minister, I am heading to the scene,'" as reported by GMT.

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A pregnant woman, one of seven people injured in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv on July 4, has lost her baby, the Israeli embassy in Washington tweeted.

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The embassy previously wrote of the attack, "There is no moral equivalence, no justification. Acts of Palestinian terrorism are fueled by an ideology of antisemitic hatred that vilifies the Jewish people."

"Terrorism strikes again in the streets of Tel Aviv today," tweeted Melissa Lantsman, a Jewish member of the Canadian Parliament.

"Praying for the full recovery of those injured in todays stabbing attack and car ramming attack. One victim – a pregnant woman who was wounded – has lost her child as a result of her own injuries. An absolute tragedy," she added. Another horrific act of terror, another incident the world won't condemn."

"If this doesn't make you angry then we don't know what will," added Honest Reporting Canada. "For any parent, this is the unimaginable and beyond devastating. May the baby's memory be for a blessing."

 Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency are still exercising caution and are not calling the last eight stabbing and shooting attacks in Jerusalem – and dozens of other attacks and attempted attacks nationwide in the past 10 weeks – a wave of terrorism. The Israeli public, on the other hand, has been forced to acknowledge that "shahada" – a martyr's death – is seeing a renaissance in Palestinian society. 

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The many terrorist attacks have led to greater focus on the "shahid" and their qualities in Palestinian media and social media. This focus never shifted, but is now taking up more space. The relevant Quran quote is also being thrown around frequently: "And do not say about those who are killed in the way of Allah, 'They are dead.' Rather, they are alive, with their lord, and they have provision."  

Now Israel Hayom is exposing the wills of the terrorists, both those who were killed during the attacks and those who lived through them, and their motives. The wills teach us about the harsh terminology that arises from their last letters and social media posts – what they leave behind. 

Former mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Ikrama Sabri explained during the Second Intifada that "the Muslim loves death and martyrdom like the Jews love life." The wills of the latest two shahids who, unfortunately, managed to carry out their plans, illustrate Sabri's remark. They both wanted to die. Mohammed Shawkat Salima, who last Saturday fell on Haredi youth Avraham Elmaliach near Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem and wounded him badly before he was fatally shot by security forces, posted on his old Facebook page a post in which he defined himself as "a martyr on the waiting list." 

"May Allah soon bring me to him," Salima wrote alongside a picture of another Palestinian, Sab Abu Abid, who was killed in clashes with the IDF in 2017. 

Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, who murdered Eliyahu Kay near the Western Wall, was also fatally shot. Before leaving to carry out his planned attack, he left a much more detailed will than Salima's, in which he claimed that "after years of work, study, and teaching, there is no choice but to let the ship said on our blood and serve as a practical example in the field of jihad." 

Until recently, Abu Shkhaydam, a member of Hamas, had a working relationship with high-ranking members of the Muslim Waqf on the Temple Mount and only four months ago finished running a course offered by the Waqf titled "The Battalion of Resilience and Ribat." 

He also took care to integrate "ribat" – an Islamic term that describes taking one's place at the front of a holy war against infidels – in his will, in which he wrote, "The best path for us in light of the abuse of our mosque [Al-Aqsa Mosque – N.S.] is to redeem it with our blood. We have no honorable life so long as our mosque undergoes one failure after another and so long as the assaults against it increase. Therefore, prepare yourselves for ribat, for jihad, for sacrifice, and to give your life and throw off the bonds of this world." 

The written statements the killer left behind are unusual when compared to the wills of other murderers of his profile, because Abu Shkhaydam went beyond background and explanation for his planned action and actually instructed the hundreds of pupils he left behind to prepare themselves for similar acts in the future. 

Half leave wills

Nor are Abu Shkhaydam and Salima alone. A look through dozens of wills reveals not only the terrorists' motives, but also their need to share their "legacies" with large audiences and win legitimacy for their deeds. 

For Israel's security forces, the wills are a treasure trove that enables them to heighten the precision of the system that tracks hundreds of thousands of internet users and social media participants each day, hoping to thwart similar attacks. Authorities think that hundreds of attacks have been prevented this way. 

The scope of the tracking and location work is enormous, especially at times of tension around the Temple Mount. In a single day after the shooting attack on the Mount itself in July 2017, over 500,000 posts from the PA territories and the Arab world went up discussing the situation on the Mount. Many intended or directly called for terrorist attacks. 

The wills, however, often tell a story that is not religious or nationalist, but one of personal distress that led the attacker to carry out their plan. Mohammad Younis, who last week ran his car into a security guard at the Te'enim checkpoint, is believed to have argued with his father before taking his car without permission and deciding to become a martyr. 

Other times, the motive is revenge or identification with other shahids, what the Shin Bet calls "copycat attacks" or "infection." In the case of Tharwat Ibrahim Salman Al-Shawari, 72, a mother of five who tried to run down soldiers near Halhul, the attacker had a sense that her death was approaching. She had told her relatives that if she was going to die, it would be better to do so as a shahid rather than "in bed," as she called it. 

Some 50% of terrorists who carried out attacks or attempted to in the last few years left behind some kind of will. The most common motive documented in the wills is the situation of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the desire to defend it from "Jewish invasion," a reference to Jewish visits to the Mount. In Palestinian society, the Al-Aqsa shahids are considered the elite, celebrities in every sense, and guarantee themselves a place of honor in the Palestinian pantheon of martyrs. Their wills are according popular. 

This is the kind of fame that came to Abu Shkhaydam, who wrote to his "brothers and comrades in dawa and Islamic activity" that "our blessed words and dawa, with which we have been busy since we were young, demand that we sacrifice and give our lives so that our words will not stay dead or without life." (Translation courtesy of MEMRI). 

Abu Shkhaydam even appealed directly to his students: "In every meeting I was sorry [to hear] that someone had beat me to Paradise by attacking [the enemy]. I would tell you stories about them, from friends of the Prophet to the lions of Islam of our time. Long live Allah. I never ceased to weep when I would tell you about them, but I would prepare myself and prepare to join them and follow their path … I command every one of you to adhere to this path." 

One of the "lions of Islam" about whom he taught his students was Mesbah Abu Sabih, who left behind a chilling will of his own. Abu Sabih, known to his admirers as the "lion of Al-Quds," murdered Levana Malichi and Yosef Kirma in a shooting attack at the light train station on Bar Lev Blvd. in Jerusalem in October 2016. 

Abu Sabih was also a member of Hamas. He also wanted to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount. Like Abu Shkhaydam, he taught the Quran at a mosque and the writings he left behind before he was fatally shot while carrying out his attack predicted what was to come, but were not identified in time. 

'A revolution has begun in Jerusalem'

Abu Sabih, whom Abu Shkhaydam admired, admitted he envied shahids and wanted to be like them. Among other things, he wrote that "Al-Aqsa Mosque is awash in blood," "was burned every day for 47 years and awaits someone who will put it out … do not abandon Al-Aqsa Mosque." In his will, he pleaded, "On Judgment Day, we will be asked what we did for Al-Aqsa Mosque to keep it part of the faith of every Muslim in the world." 

Without Al-Aqsa, he warned, "There will be blood. There are men who will redeem Al-Aqsa with their blood. Jerusalem sits on the mouth of a volcano that is about to erupt. Al-Aqsa Mosque is closed and the murderers of children invade it every day." But, he wrote, "In Jerusalem, a revolution has started that is not a revolution of rocks alone."

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Abu Sabih, who was a violent type with a criminal past, and Abu Shkhaydam, supposedly more learned and gentle, wrote nearly identical things. So did Mohammed Tarayreh, 19, who murdered Hillel Yaffa Ariel, 13, while she was sleeping in her bed in her home in Kiryat Arba in June 2016. 

Omar Al-Abed, a resident of Kobar who stabbed three members of the Salomon family as they were gathered around the Shabbat table in their home in Halmish, left a "last will and testament" on Facebook an hour and 40 minutes before leaving to kill. His writings also dealt with the "bitter fate of Al-Aqsa." 

"The mosque is being defiled and we sleep," Al-Abed scolded. "It is a disgrace for us to sit and do nothing. You, who pull out guns only at weddings and celebrations, are you not ashamed of yourselves? … All I have is a honed knife and it is answering the call of Al-Aqsa. I am going to Paradise, my home is there. I want nothing beyond that. Allah will judge whoever does not carry out my will. Put a band of Al-Qassem around my head and on my chest, a picture of Abu Amar [Yasser Arafat]. I will take them to the grave with me." 

'The noose is around my neck'

But it's not all about Al-Aqsa. Ibrahim Halas, who in April 2020 ran down a police officer at a checkpoint in Abu Dis and was fatally shot at the scene, connected his act to criminal trouble, writing, "They set the entire world against me, they ruined my life. The noose is already around my neck. From the time I was young, I drank alcohol and used drugs, but I am an honest and fair person and want to divorce my wife for these reasons, which have brought me to the edge." 

Nimer Mahmoud Jamal, who was 37 when he murdered three Israelis on Har Adar in September 2017, also did so because of personal problems. He had a long string of violent criminal offense, mostly domestic violence, and in his will he told his wife that she should not be troubled because of his actions. "You have nothing to do with what I am about to carry out. I was a bad husband and a bad father and you were a good wife and a caring mother. I tried to mend my ways, but I never could. You deserve a better life than the life you had with me." 

There are also attackers inspired by a desire to mimic or get revenge. Ayman Kurd, 20, who stabbed two police officers near Damascus Gate after his cousin Ramzi died in a shooting in Hebron, wrote to his mother: "Be sure that I did not do this because of anyone, but of my own will. I thought about it even before my 'brother' Ramzi died a martyr's death … Bury me in the shahids' graveyard near my brother Ramzi." Kurd even asked that his death be celebrated: "I want them to have a party for me." 

Longing to die 

Abada Abu Ras, the son of a senior Hamas official who was deported to London in the early 1990s, was responsible for a terrorist stabbing in Givat Zeev in January 2016. Two weeks earlier he had written: "I long for an event in which I will lose my life." Abu Ras posted a picture of his inspiration – Mohand Halabi, who murdered Nechemia Lavi and Aharon Benita three months earlier. 

Fuad Abu Rajab a-Tamimi from Issawiya in east Jerusalem, who opened fire on two police officers and was killed at the scene, left an explanation that he wanted to become a martyr. "My death was to sanctify and glorify Allah… Don't spread hatred in the hearts of my brothers after my death. Let them discover the religion and their own path, so they can die for the purpose of being a shahid and not as revenge." 

Qutaiba Zahran, 17, from the Tulkarem region, who stabbed a Border Police officer near Tapuah Junction and was shot and killed on the spot, wrote a long post on Facebook titled "The will of a shahid," in which he bid farewell to his family and explained that the attack he was about to perpetrate was to avenge the blood of "Palestine's shahids." 

The many wills and posts that the attackers prepare show that most assume they will die trying to carry out their plans. The catchy message that Yasser Arafat made popular years ago, "Millions of shahids are marching toward Jerusalem," is being voiced again now. If this is the case, it's hard to discuss deterrence, and what's more, Palestinian society for the most part embraces the martyrs and even praises them. In a reality like this, security forces' main focus is on preventing attacks through human intelligence as well as electronic means, and by being on the alert – as we have seen at Damascus Gate.

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A ramming attack in Judea and Samaria early Monday left an Israeli security guard seriously wounded. The alleged terrorist behind the wheel, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was shot and killed by other security personnel at the Te'enim checkpoint, near the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

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Magen David Adom emergency services paramedics said the guard, 34, was in a serious but stable condition with head and chest wounds, adding that he was conscious when he was rushed to the Tel Hashomer Medical Center near Tel Aviv.

Following the attack, Defense Minister Benny Gantz has ordered the military and police to be on high alert in all Judea and Samaria checkpoints.

Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Eshel, who arrived at the scene and participated in an initial inquiry of the incident, praised the actions of the security guards at the checkpoint.

"This is a terrible attack and we all wish a speedy recovery to the wounded guard. The guards at the crossing acted quickly, just as we train them, sought to engage, hit the terrorist and ended the event within seconds. We are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident and will examine further steps to improve the protection for the guards," Eshel said.

Erez Sidon of the Crossing Points Authority in the Defense Ministry, said that the vehicle "arrived at the checkpoint with insane speed, swerved off its lane, got on the sidewalk and tried to hit three [road] workers who were there. After hitting one of the security guards, his colleagues neutralized him [the driver]."

Sidon added that the crossing is currently being operated by a civilian security company and not by the IDF.

The incident comes just over a day after two Border Police officers shot dead a Palestinian assailant after he stabbed a Jewish civilian in a suspected terror attack near the Old City of Jerusalem.

The incident took place near the Damascus Gate, a crowded area that is often the scene of demonstrations, clashes, and terrorist attacks.

The Border Police said the suspect also attempted to stab a policeman before he was shot.

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In an official statement about the attack, the IDF said, "The terrorist tried to use his car to run over an IDF soldier and a police officer who were in the area, and then got out of his car brandishing a knife.

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"As a result of the car's impact, the IDF soldier and police officer were lightly wounded," the IDF said.

Security forces shot the attacker, who sustained moderate to serious wounds.

Video: Samaria Regional Council Security

Magen David Adom paramedics who were scrambled to the scene treated the wounded solider and police officer, who were then taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva for further care.

Paramedic Aviel Malima said, "When we got there, we saw two wounded people, both men ages 20 and 23, who were conscious and walking around. We administered first aid and took then to the hospital."

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Overnight Wednesday, special Border Police forces raided the Al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah, where they arrested two fugitives suspected of involvement in terrorist activity.

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When the raid was over, a vehicle drew up alongside the forces, apparently in an attempt to run them down. The car plowed into the Border Police's armored car and sustained major damage. The forces spotted the suspicious maneuver and noted that the Palestinian was holding something that appeared to be a knife, and opened fire, wounding him.

The would-be attacker is reported to be a resident of east Jerusalem.

After the incident, riots broke out in the camp. Protesters threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at the border police, who used crowd dispersal measures.

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The suspect was arrested, along with his father, hours after the incident, the IDF said in a statement.

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The military said the pair were being questioned after the arrests, which took place after a search in the area of the attack and intelligence-gathering operations.

"The assailant spotted the troops, who were stationed by the side of the road during operational activity, before ramming his vehicle into them," the IDF said.

Three of the soldiers were moderately wounded and two were lightly injured in the alleged attack.

All were taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.

One of those moderately wounded was a career officer in his 30s, while another was a female soldier in her 20s, according to reports.

Earlier, the Israel Police said that a vehicle with Palestinian plates tried to run over a police officer at a checkpoint in northern Judea and Samaria. No injuries were reported and the driver fled the scene.

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Isaiah Joel Peoples, 34, faces eight counts of attempted murder for injuring eight people, including four who remain hospitalized. He is being held without bail.

The most seriously injured is a 13-year-old Sunnyvale girl of South Asian descent who is in a coma with severe brain trauma.

His family says Peoples, a former U.S. Army sharpshooter, experienced post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq. Peoples' attorney, Chuck Smith, says the crash was in no way deliberate.

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