A 13-year-old female U.S. citizen was stabbed to death by a Palestinian man who broke into her house in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba Thursday morning, the State Department confirmed Thursday afternoon.
“This brutal act of terrorism is absolutely unconscionable,” State spokesman John Kirby said in a press briefing Thursday. “Look, as we’ve said many times, there’s just absolutely no justification for terrorism and out of respect for the families, especially the family of Hallel, we’re just not gonna have comment on those attacks.”
Israeli Defense Forces said a terrorist trespassed onto the property and snuck into Hallel Yaffa Ariel’s bedroom where he proceeded to stab her multiple times.
Screams from Hallel alerted others in the house and a guard responding to the noise was accidentally struck by crossfire from the father’s gun. The guard was later taken to the hospital and survived. The girl was rushed to the hospital, but did not survive.
The assailant died at the scene from gunshots he sustained. The Palestinian terrorist has been identified as 17-year-old Muhammad Nasser Tarayrah, from Bani Naim.
Two additional Israelis were stabbed in a separate attack in Israel Thursday afternoon.
The attacks are the latest in a string of incidents in which Palestinians’ have killed Israelis in smaller-scale stabbings and shootings, as opposed to larger bombings, as was seen during the Second Intifada last decade.
