2022 El'ad Stabbing Attack

The El'ad attack occurred during an escalating wave of Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians that had begun in March 2022. Beginning on March 22 of that year, a series of lethal attacks struck Israeli cities including Beersheba, Hadera, Bnei Brak, Tel Aviv, and Ariel; across all of those attacks, 19 people were killed — including three members of Israeli security forces — and more than 20 were wounded.[1] The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point placed the El'ad attack within this wider spring 2022 wave and noted that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had called on Palestinians to continue attacks using knives, axes, or cleavers, though there is no indication that Sinwar specifically ordered the El'ad operation.[2]

The two perpetrators were As'ad Yousef As'ad al-Rifa'i, 19, and Subhi Emad Sbeihat, also reported as Abu Shakir, 20, both from Rummanah, a village approximately 17 kilometers northwest of Jenin.[3][1] According to the indictment account, Sbeihat had first proposed carrying out a terrorist attack in August 2021, motivated by a nationalist-ideological desire to kill Jewish Israeli civilians; al-Rifa'i initially refused but later agreed.[4] The two raised 11,000 shekels in an attempt to purchase firearms but failed, and instead acquired two axes and two utility knives.[4] Both men had worked in El'ad without permits for approximately six months, giving them detailed familiarity with the city.[4]

On the evening of May 5, 2022, the two attackers crossed into Israel through a breach they made in the separation fence and arranged transport to El'ad. Their driver, Oren Ben Yiftah — a 35-year-old father of six from Lod — had been contacted by a third party who assisted them.[4][5] The attackers told Ben Yiftah they were traveling to renovate a synagogue.[6] After arriving in El'ad, they stabbed him 21 times, killing him, then attempted unsuccessfully to start his vehicle before continuing on foot.[4]

Magen David Adom received an emergency call at 20:36.[7] The attackers moved from the junction of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and Ibn Gabirol streets toward the municipal amphitheater park, which was crowded with Independence Day celebrants.[7] They attacked people at multiple locations along the way. Boaz Gol, 49, a father of five and a resident of El'ad, was killed with an axe.[4] Yonatan Havakuk, 44, another El'ad resident and father of five, was attacked with an axe near his six-year-old son and was also killed.[4] The attackers struck security guard Shimon Maatuf, 75, who had been working at a nearby Independence Day event and went toward the screams; he sustained a severe axe blow to the head.[4][8] Additional victims were wounded, including a man attacked in front of his children and two people set upon in a car who resisted the assailants.[4]

Eyewitnesses described the assailants using an axe and a knife.[7] Police initially relayed a witness report that one attacker may have had a firearm, but Magen David Adom assessed that the injuries were consistent with a sharp implement rather than gunfire.[9] Three injured people were transported to hospitals: two with head wounds to Beilinson Hospital — one in critical condition and one seriously injured — and a third in serious condition to Sheba Medical Center, where the neurosurgery chief described the patient, a man in his 20s, as fighting for his life and in need of immediate surgery.[9]

After the attack, the two terrorists fled through a breach in the fence surrounding El'ad and disappeared into a nearby forest.[1] Police confirmed the incident as a terrorist attack, blocked roads, deployed a helicopter, and ordered El'ad residents to remain in their homes out of concern that the assailants could strike again.[9] Police, Shin Bet personnel, and Yamam special forces launched an immediate search.[7]

The two attackers evaded Israeli security forces for approximately 60 to 62 hours after the attack, hiding in Nakhshonim Forest, a forested area between El'ad and Rosh HaAyin.[10][1] They were found near a quarry, exhausted and apparently without food or water since the attack.[10] A combined force involving police, Shin Bet, and IDF units located them after hearing movement in the bushes.[10] Following capture, al-Rifa'i reportedly stated, "I hit people."[10]

Paramedics examined both men before they were taken for interrogation.[10] Al-Rifa'i subsequently confessed to security forces that he had carried out the axe attack together with Sbeihat.[11] A week after the attack, Israeli troops arrested two additional Palestinians suspected of having aided the attackers.[11] The Shin Bet and Israel Police jointly investigated the case.[12]

Three men were killed in the immediate attack: Oren Ben Yiftah, Boaz Gol, and Yonatan Havakuk. Ben Yiftah was a father of six; Gol and Havakuk were each fathers of five. Together, the three men left behind 16 children.[5] Havakuk was attacked in the presence of his six-year-old son.[4]

Shimon Maatuf, 75, the armed security guard who had responded to screams at the park, was struck in the head with an axe and sustained severe injuries. He was initially reported in critical condition. On February 2, 2023 — eight months after the attack — Maatuf died of his wounds. His daughter stated that an infection had contributed to his declining health and that he never recovered from the attack.[8] His death brought the final death toll from the May 5 attack to four.[12]

Both attackers were indicted in Israeli court. The original indictment charged them with three counts of murder under aggravated circumstances as an act of terror, five counts of attempted murder as an act of terror, and illegal entry into Israel, among other charges.[4] After Shimon Maatuf died of his injuries in February 2023, the indictment was amended to add a fourth count of aggravated terrorist murder.[12]

In May 2023, the Central District Court convicted al-Rifa'i and Sbeihat on all four counts of aggravated murder as a terrorist act, along with additional offenses including attempted murder, aggravated injury, aggravated wounding, and unlawful entry.[12] An agreement submitted to the court provided for four consecutive life sentences for the murders, plus a consecutive 20-year term for the other offenses.[12]

Israeli authorities responded to the attack on multiple levels. Israel's Chief of Police, Major General Yaakov Shabtai, announced a broad police operation to detain Palestinians staying illegally in Israel and Israelis who assisted them by providing transportation, accommodation, or employment.[10] The operation targeted both illegal residents and the people who facilitated their presence in Israel.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures publicly praised the attack; Hamas characterized it as a response to Jewish visitors returning to the Temple Mount on Independence Day, after the site had been closed to Jewish visitors during the end of Ramadan.[9] Neither group formally claimed operational responsibility, and reports indicated that the two perpetrators had not been specifically directed by an established organization.[1]

The attack was documented in the U.S. Department of State's Country Reports on Terrorism 2022, which listed it among terrorist attacks in Israel and stated that the perpetrators had entered the country illegally from the West Bank.[13] The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point also placed the attack within the broader spring 2022 wave and identified the perpetrators as coming from the Jenin area, as had attackers involved in the Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv attacks.[2]

Approved sources report different injury totals. The Jewish Virtual Library lists eight injured, while the State Department report lists four killed and two wounded.[14][13] N12's opening account reported four men seriously wounded, while its detailed account classified two as seriously wounded, one as moderately wounded, and a 23-year-old as lightly wounded.[7] The sources do not reconcile these totals. The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center's report also contains an internal inconsistency, with its summary stating four wounded while its detailed narrative appears to account for only three.[1]

Early reports differed on the weapons used, with police initially relaying a witness account of a firearm while medical responders assessed the injuries as having been caused by a sharp implement.[9] Later indictment and court accounts consistently described the attackers as carrying axes and knives.[4][12] A further chronology discrepancy remains unresolved: N12 reported that Magen David Adom received the emergency call at 20:36, whereas a later ynet account of the indictment said the defendants arrived on Ibn Gabirol Street at about 23:20.[7][4]

Sources attributed a possible al-Aqsa-related motive either to allegations in the indictment or to statements by a suspect's family member.[4][1] Those accounts should not be conflated with evidence that Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad directed the attack; reports said the attackers lacked an organizational affiliation.[1][10]