Murder of Dalia Lemkus

Alon Shvut is a community in the Etzion bloc (Gush Etzion), an area south of Jerusalem in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria. The bus stop where the attack occurred was located approximately 100 meters from the hitchhiking stop where three Israeli teenagers had been abducted in June 2014.[1]

Dalia Lemkus was a resident of nearby Tekoa who had studied art at an ulpanah in Kiryat Arba and went on to earn a degree in occupational therapy from a University of Haifa branch in Bnei Brak.[6] She worked in her profession in Kiryat Gat and at a Jerusalem kindergarten, and volunteered with Yad Sarah after a branch opened in Tekoa.[6] The attack was not the first time she had encountered political violence: while in 12th grade, she and a friend were waiting for a ride on Route 60 when a man with a knife ran toward them, wounding her in the leg and also stabbing a yeshiva student nearby.[6] After that earlier attack, when her sister asked how she could continue hitchhiking, Lemkus replied, "Do you think I'm going to let them defeat me?"[6]

Hashalmoun had previously served a prison term in Israel from 2000 to 2005 for throwing a Molotov cocktail at IDF forces.[1]

On November 10, 2014, the attack unfolded shortly before Magen David Adom received notification at 4:40 p.m.[1] Investigators later established that Hashalmoun had planned the attack in advance: he purchased two knives so he could continue attacking if the vehicle ramming failed, and gave his wife a will on the morning of the attack before driving around to seek victims.[4]

Hashalmoun drove toward Lemkus, but the vehicle hit barriers at the bus stop. He got out and stabbed Lemkus repeatedly, then attacked other people nearby.[1][3] Later court reporting identified Yishai Katz as an intended target and Yishayahu Horovitz as a man stabbed while trying to restrain him.[4] Resuscitation attempts on Lemkus failed, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. The two other wounded men — one in his mid-twenties with an abdominal stab wound and one around 50 with a wound to the face — were evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem and Shaare Zedek hospitals.[1]

A civilian security guard shot and wounded Hashalmoun during the attack.[3] Hashalmoun was arrested and later confessed to the crimes.[4]

The attack on Lemkus took place on the same day as a separate stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in which IDF soldier Almog Shiloni was killed.[7] Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad praised both attacks, claiming they were a rapid response to the killing of a young man from Kafr Kana.[7] Senior Hamas figure Musheir al-Masri described the attacks as "the first swallows" of a third intifada, which he said would "be ignited everywhere"; those remarks were attributed to an Al-Aqsa TV broadcast on November 10, 2014.[7] Palestinian Islamic Jihad was also reported to have claimed responsibility for the Alon Shvut attack specifically.[3]

The glorification of the attack extended into Palestinian media directed at children. Palestinian Media Watch documented a passage in Fatah's children's magazine Waed (Issue 30) in which a 12-year-old Palestinian girl described the attack as "a heroic car ramming" and praised Hashalmoun as having "the most beautiful smile."[2] The same passage identified Hashalmoun as having been sentenced to two life sentences.[2]

In March 2015, the Judea Military Court sentenced Hashalmoun to two consecutive life terms.[8][4] The judges specified that one life sentence was for the murder of Dalia Lemkus and the second was for the attempted murders of the other victims.[8] The court also ordered Hashalmoun to pay the Lemkus family four million shekels (NIS) in compensation.[8][5] During the proceedings, Hashalmoun expressed no regret.[8]

The Lemkus family subsequently pursued collection of the compensation award. By the time of later reporting, they had recovered approximately 800,000 shekels.[5] In February 2024, an execution registrar issued an order requiring the Palestinian Authority to pay 267,000 shekels to Lemkus's parents as part of the ongoing collection effort.[9]

Community tributes described Lemkus as gentle, modest, and deeply committed to her work with children in difficult circumstances.[6] Colleagues recalled that the children she worked with progressed because she believed in them.[6] She was the daughter of South African immigrants to Israel[10] and was survived by her parents, three sisters, and two brothers.[2]

A telling example of her character, recounted after her death, involved the Yad Sarah branch in Tekoa. When the branch closed and returned its medical equipment to her family's home, Lemkus proposed that local Bnei Akiva youth deliver the equipment to people who needed it. In the email making the suggestion, she added the qualification, "If it isn't too exploitative" — a phrase the branch director cited as typical of her consideration for others.[6]

Contemporary reporting differed over the role of the vehicle. Ynet and N12 reported that Hashalmoun tried to ram Lemkus before leaving the vehicle and stabbing her, while one witness quoted by N12 said there had been no ramming and described only a stabbing.[1][3] Later reporting on the prosecution described a preplanned ramming-and-stabbing attack.[4]

Accounts also initially differed over the attacker's fate. N12 reported that the security guard wounded Hashalmoun, while the U.S. Department of State's 2014 human-rights report incorrectly stated that the guard killed him.[11][3] The later prosecution and compensation record establishes that Hashalmoun survived the shooting and was sentenced.[4][5]