BICOM

An 18-year-old Israeli soldier was killed yesterday while sleeping on a bus by a Palestinian teenager in the northern town of Afula.

Pvt. Eden Attias enlisted for military service three weeks ago and was returning to his base from his home in Upper Nazareth. Attias was asleep when the bus stopped in Afula and was attacked by a fellow passenger, an unnamed 16-year-old Palestinian from nearby Jenin. Attias was stabbed several times before Border Police and an armed soldier managed to restrain the attacker. Attias was treated by paramedics at the scene before being transferred to Haemek Hospital where he later died. Attias was buried last night in the military cemetery in Upper Nazareth and is survived by parents and two brothers.

The attacker was working in Israel illegally and Haaretz reports that his father commented he had left home about a month ago. Commenting on the attacker’s motive, Israel’s northern police commander, Ronny Attia, said, “By his account, his uncles are in prison in Israel and this is the reason he decided to carry out the terrorist attack.” Israel Radio reported that two of the assailant’s relatives are currently imprisoned for terror-related offences.

Attia added, that “police had no specific alerts regarding the attack.” Yesterday’s incident follows a series of serious and apparently unrelated incidents during the past two months which have left Israelis either dead or injured. Last month, an Israeli man was bludgeoned to death in the Jordan Valley; in September an IDF soldier was kidnapped and murdered near Beit Amin and another was shot dead in Hebron. However, earlier this week Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon dismissed suggestions that a third intifada could be brewing.

Ya’alon yesterday sent his condolences to Attias’ family and pledged “we will continue our firm struggle against terrorism.” Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz pointed the finger for yesterday’s attack at Palestinian incitement against Israel, calling it the “main obstacle to peace.”