Multiple axe attack in Elad leaves 3 dead, 5 injured – two in critical condition

In a Palestinian terror attack, two armed men, one wielding an axe, killed three men, injured another four on a street in the ultra-Orthodox town of Elad in central Israel as Israel’s independence day drew to a close on Thursday night, May 5. As the hunt for the killers continued overnight, their murdered victims were named: Oran Ben-Yiftah (35), father of 6, from Lod, and two fathers of 5 each from Elad – Boaz Gul (49), and Yonatan Habakuk (44). Two of the four injured men hospitalized are still in critical condition.

Police early Friday released names and photos of the two terrorists who got away in a waiting vehicle, appealing to the public to come forward with any information leading to their whereabouts. Assad al-Rifai, 19, and Soubhi Abu Shakir, 20, both from the village of Roumana in the Jenin area, a Palestinian terrorist hotbed in northern Samaria.

Families were enjoying the clement holiday weather outdoors and in the park up until the savage attack. They were told to go home and lock their doors and windows. Boosted police and security forces turned out to guard the town and fanned out across the Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria in search of the killers. Following the murder last week of Viacheslav Golov in Ariel, security forces ran the two gunmen to earth in less than 20 hours.

In the past five weeks, Palestinian terrorists have claimed 19 lives in murderous attacks perpetrated in important Israeli towns – Beersheba, Tel Aviv, Hadera, Bnei Brak and now Elad.

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