2013 Tapuah Junction Stabbing

Tapuah Junction is a major crossroads in Samaria, located approximately 27 miles from Jerusalem, that served as a common hitchhiking and transportation nexus used by both Arabs and Jews.[5] The junction had a history of security incidents: a fatal stabbing of an IDF soldier occurred there in February 2010, and earlier arrests at the location involved pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, a makeshift pistol, and ammunition.[8]

The April 2013 attack was not the first stabbing at Tapuah Junction that year. On January 29, 2013, a 17-year-old Israeli waiting for a bus at the junction was stabbed; his wounds were described as noncritical and he was evacuated to a hospital.[4] A separate official record describes the victim's wounds as light to moderate and identifies the attacker as a Palestinian from Ramallah.[3] A security checkpoint that had previously stood roughly 30 paces from the bus stop area had recently been removed in an effort to normalize daily life at the junction.[5]

At approximately 8:00–8:15 a.m. on April 30, 2013, Evyatar Borovsky was waiting for a ride at the bus stop at Tapuah Junction when he was approached by a Palestinian attacker who had traveled to the junction by bus.[1][5] The attacker, carrying a kitchen knife nearly eight inches long concealed in a blue plastic bag, shouted Islamic declarations before stabbing Borovsky.[5] Accounts differ slightly on the precise wounds inflicted: Ynet described repeated stabs to the abdomen, while N12 reported three stabs to the chest.[1][2]

Magen David Adom personnel attempted resuscitation at the scene, but Borovsky was declared dead.[1] After stabbing Borovsky, the attacker seized the victim's firearm and fired toward a nearby Border Police position.[1] Border Police officers returned fire, wounding the attacker in the leg; he was subdued and evacuated to Rabin Medical Center–Beilinson in Petah Tikva with a wound described as non-life-threatening or moderate.[1][5]

Borovsky was a resident of Yitzhar who had lived there with his family for approximately five years.[9] He was born in Kfar Hasidim and worked as an actor in several theater groups, also serving as part of Yitzhar's security team.[9] He worked additionally as a medical or therapeutic clown, using psychodrama, role-playing, puppetry, and humor to help traumatized children.[5] Sources report his age as either 31 or 32 at the time of his death.[9][2] His surname appears in contemporary English-language reporting as both Borowsky and Borovsky.[8][6] He was survived by his wife and five children. His funeral in Kfar Hasidim was attended by approximately 2,000 mourners.[9]

The attacker is identified across sources as Salam Assad Zaghal, also rendered as Salem Zaal, Salam Azal, Salam Zagal, or Salam Zael, a Palestinian from Shuwaykah or a nearby village in the Tulkarm area.[4][1] Sources place his age at either 21 or 24 at the time of the attack.[5][1]

Zaghal had a prior record involving Israeli security offenses, though sources differ on the details and timing of his imprisonment. One account states that he was released from an Israeli prison in March 2013 after serving three years for throwing stones.[4] Other reports place his release approximately six to eight months before the attack after a three-year sentence for rock throwing.[6][1] A congressional account also states that he had previously attempted to plant a bomb and had spent more than three years in Israeli custody.[5] His brother had recently been convicted by the Palestinian Authority of collaboration with Israel.[1]

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades — Fatah's military-terrorist wing — claimed responsibility for the attack.[4] Its announcement described Zaghal as a "released prisoner and hero," identified him as a member of the Shaheed Rae'd Karmi Squad, and linked the attack to an announced intention to avenge the deaths of Palestinian prisoners Arafat Jaradat and Maysara Abu Hamdia.[4] A congressional hearing record further reports that the Brigades called it a "heroic operation" and a "quality operation," and that Fatah's Facebook page praised Zaghal as a released prisoner.[5]

The attack was the first killing of an Israeli in the West Bank in approximately 18 months.[3][1] It was one of three stabbing attacks that killed Israelis in Judea and Samaria during 2013 — a year in which five Israelis in total were killed in attacks originating from the territory, compared with no such fatalities in 2012.[10]

Borovsky's killing was followed by a wave of retaliatory violence in the surrounding area. Rocks were thrown at Palestinian vehicles and a bus carrying Palestinian schoolgirls near Yitzhar, and at least two Palestinians were reported injured.[1] Palestinian-owned fields were set on fire, and the words "price tag" were reportedly spray-painted on a home in a nearby Palestinian village.[11] Settlers suspected of being from Yitzhar also vandalized and attempted to set fire to a mosque and carried out multiple attacks against civilians in the Palestinian village of Urif.[3]

In the weeks that followed, additional incidents invoking Borovsky's name were recorded. On May 29, cars in several Arab villages were torched or spray-painted with messages referencing the 30 days since his death, and on May 31 cars in Beit Ilo were found with punctured tires alongside graffiti reading "revenge" and "price tag – regards from Eviatar."[11]

The Samaria Military Court convicted Zaghal in July 2013 for the murder of Borovsky.[6] A later report states that he received a life term plus an additional 20-year sentence.[7] Borovsky's widow, Sophia, publicly called for the death penalty following the conviction.[6]

Several weeks after the attack, a settler outpost was established in Borovsky's memory and named Evyatar. Israeli security forces evacuated and razed the outpost approximately two weeks after it was erected.[12]

The available sources contain several factual discrepancies. Borovsky's age is reported as either 31 or 32.[9][2] His surname appears as both Borowsky and Borovsky in contemporary English-language reports.[8][6] The attacker's name is transliterated variously as Zaghal, Zagal, and Zael, while a later memorial report uses Razal and describes him as a resident of the southern Hebron area.[4][1][7] Accounts also differ on the location and number of the stab wounds and on whether the attacker fired one shot or fired more generally toward the Border Police position.[1][2]

The U.S. State Department's 2013 Human Rights Report places the incident within a discussion of unlawful killings by Palestinian terrorist groups and other individuals, but it does not expressly identify the attacker as a member of a terrorist organization.[13] The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades' claimed responsibility and stated motives, as well as additional biographical details about Zaghal, derive primarily from an Israeli intelligence-center report and a statement entered into a U.S. congressional hearing record; these details are not independently corroborated in the State Department's terrorism report.[4][5]