Arabs Stab Jewish Bus Passengers, Killing 1, Injuring 3

RAMAT GAN, Israel — Three Arabs traveling on an Israeli bus Sunday drew knives and stabbed Jewish passengers, slaying one and wounding three before a police officer who happened upon the attack killed one of the assailants.

Stunned bystanders looked on as frightened passengers, some dripping blood, poured out of the bus into a busy shopping area in Ramat Gan, a city adjacent to Tel Aviv.

It was the bloodiest incident in Greater Tel Aviv, Israel’s most populous area, since Arabs began a wave of stabbing attacks on Jews in October. The attacks followed the police slaying of 20 Arabs in a clash on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Islam’s third-holiest site, on Oct. 8.

Police said the three assailants in Sunday’s incident are from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and all are younger than 20 years old. Soon after boarding the bus bound for Tel Aviv, they jumped up shouting, “Allahu Akbar!” (Arabic for “God is great”), witnesses said.

Four Israelis were wounded before the driver stopped the bus, fired his gun in the air and opened the doors for the estimated 30 passengers to escape.

Two 18-year-old women and a 15-year-old boy were hospitalized and were recovering from chest wounds. Baruch Heisler, a 24-year-old who attended a yeshiva, or religious seminary, later died of his wounds in an Israeli hospital.