Suspected terrorist fatally shot in Israel after stabbing soldier and opening fire on passing cars, killing driver
A suspected terrorist was shot dead by border police in Israel early Monday after he stabbed an Israeli soldier, stole his rifle and opened fire on passing cars, killing an elderly man.
The crazed killer, 25-year-old Karem Jabarin, crashed a car into a bus stop at the Tishbi Junction on Route 66 near the lower Galilee city of Yokne’am and stabbed a 20-year-old soldier stationed there, according to Israeli authorities.
He then grabbed the soldier’s rifle and opened fire at passing cars as he ran down the highway, killing a 85-year-old man identified as Moshe Horan, of Kibbutz HaZore’a, who was driving by with his 51-year-old son, the Times of Israel reported.
Video circulating on social media allegedly shows Jabarin sprinting down a highway with a gun and firing at vehicles — until he falls to the ground, apparently after being shot by Israel Border Police agents.
The agents had been traveling to a training exercise when they spotted the alleged terrorist, jumped out of their vehicle and shot him, according to the report.
Horan and Jabarin were both declared dead at the scene, officials said.
The injured soldier, who serves as a heavy load truck driver in the Armored Corps, was rushed to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa in serious condition.
Witness Gideon Shalom said he was the only other person at the bus stop when Jabarin drove into the small structure.
Shalom said he initially ran towards Jabarin, thinking it had been an accident but fled when he pulled out a 12-inch knife. He tried to warn other drivers of the gunman as they drove past.
“I escaped over the road barrier, he stabbed the young man, and I heard two shots in my direction,” he told Kan, Israel’s national broadcaster.
“It was a nightmare what happened here,” he added.
Horan was a well-known melon farmer and gardener in the Jezreel Valley area, according to the Times of Israel.
His kibbutz, which was first settled by his parents, remembered Horan as “a family man, committed to his children and his life as the silver lining in the life of the community where he was born and lived his whole life.”
Horan is survived by his wife Betty, four children and ten grandchildren.
