Three fathers victims of West Bank terror attack
Victims named as Michael Ladygin, 36, Motti Ashkenazi, 59 and Tamir Avihai, 50.
Three Israelis were killed and three were hurt in a stabbing and car-ramming attack in and around the West Bank settlement of Ariel on Tuesday morning, the military and medics said.
According to the Israel Defence Forces, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed a security guard near the entrance to the Ariel Industrial Park. The terrorist then stabbed three people at and adjacent to a nearby petrol station, before he fled in an apparently stolen vehicle.
Shortly afterwards, the terrorist crashed the vehicle into other cars on the Route 5 highway, before getting out and stabbing another person, according to medics. He then stole another vehicle and drove it against traffic, crashing into more cars, before he got out and was shot dead by soldiers and armed civilians.
The three victims of the attack were named on Tuesday evening.
One was Michael Ladygin, 36, a resident of the central coastal city of Bat Yam, who was stabbed by the killer. He left behind a wife and two children, according to Bat Yam mayor Tzvika Brot, who added that Ladygin had moved to Israel five years ago.
A second was Motti Ashkenazi, 59, a resident of the central city of Yavne. He is survived by his wife, three children, and two grandchildren.
“Motti was a loving person, full of joy, an exemplary husband, and a family man with a huge soul who always loved to help everyone,” his family said in remarks provided by the Yavne municipality.
The third was 50-year-old Tamir Avihai, a resident of the settlement of Kiryat Netafim and a father of six, who was killed when the terrorist rammed his car into him, following the stabbing spree.
Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan described Avihai, whom he knew personally, as “a man of kindness” who was always seeking to help other people.
“Everyone who knew him, loved him,” Dagan said in a statement.
The terrorist was named by the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry as 18-year-old Muhammed Souf, from the nearby town of Hares.
Local officials said the terrorist had worked in the industrial zone, and had a valid permit. Souf did not have any prior security offences, a defence source told The Times of Israel.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military early on Tuesday morning made preparations for the demolition of the home of a Palestinian man who carried out a deadly stabbing attack in a northeastern West Bank Palestinian village last month.
On October 25, the terrorist, named by Palestinian media as Younis Helan, stabbed 63-year-old Shalom Sofer after he exited a store in al-Funduq, a Palestinian village near the settlement of Kedumim. After being hospitalised in a serious condition Sofer was released, but he succumbed to his injuries last Tuesday at home.
Sofer, who lived in the central city of Petach Tikvah and owned a store in Kedumim, apparently suffered blood loss after one of his wounds unexpectedly reopened.
TIMES OF ISRAEL
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