UPDATE: According to the State Department, Hallal Yaffa Ariel was a US Citizen:
JUST IN: US State Dept.: Teen girl, stabbed to death by Palestinian attacker in West Bank, is a US citizen. https://t.co/kE9E3FNvTT
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) June 30, 2016
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JERUSALEM POST – Palestinian stabbed a 13-year old to death in her bedroom on Thursday morning after he infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, which is located next to Hebron.
“My daughter was sleeping calmly when he [the terrorist] came into her bedroom,” Hallal’s mother Rina told Army Radio. “She was happy,’ she added.
A Magen David Adom paramedic said that when he arrived at the scene the teenage girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, was unconscious and was not breathing. They were able to resuscitate her at the scene, but it was touch-and-go during the whole journey to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, as they continuously fought to keep her alive.
She was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival, without ever regaining consciousness.
After the attack, the IDF and one of the Prime Minister Office’s spokesman tweeted a photograph of her blood-stained bedroom.
13-yr-old girl wounded in stabbing attack has succumbed to her wounds. pic.twitter.com/H00mKr6XJp
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) June 30, 2016
The terrorist, Mohammad Tarairah, 17, breached the settlement’s fence and then entered the Ariel home that was located on a security road, near a yeshiva high school for boys.
The settlement’s security team responded to the incident. According to the IDF, the terrorist stabbed a member of that security team, before another member of the team shot and killed Tarairah.
Among the Magen David paramedics who responded to the scene, was the wife of the wounded member of the security team.
She went with her husband to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem. Doctors there said that the wounded man, believed to be age 30, was suffering from gun shot wounds and that his injuries were not life threatening.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman met and ordered the IDF to close off the Palestinian village of Bani Na’im, located near Kiryat Arba, where Tarairah lived. They also ordered the IDF to rescind work permits belonging to Tarairah’s immediate and extended family.
Absolutely horrible.
I have no words to describe how angry this makes me and how sad it makes me for the family of this 13-year-old girl Hallal Yaffa Ariel.