Paramedic who stopped terrorist: The soldiers' lives were top priority

Two IDF soldiers in their twenties were injured in a stabbing attack near Tzrifin, close to Rishon Lezion on Tuesday morning, according to a statement from the Israel Police spokesperson which was later confirmed by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

Magen David Adom emergency teams treated one lightly injured and another seriously injured person at the scene before evacuating them to the nearby Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh).

Terrorist subdued by citizens

After attacking the soldiers, the terrorist tried to commandeer the weapon belonging to the seriously injured soldier. The soldier, according to the IDF, was able to maintain possession of the weapon by laying on top of it and fighting with the terrorist despite his injuries. 

The terrorist was subdued by civilians at the scene and then arrested by the police. He is a 21-year-old Palestinian resident of the West Bank town of Hebron, a police spokesman said.

One of the actors at the scene, United Hatzalah emergency medical technician (EMT), Benny Meshulam, told the Jerusalem Post that he was on his way to work when he witnessed an altercation between civilians and IDF soldiers. 

"I really do not know how I knew it was a terror attack," he told the Post. "At first it looked like a [regular] scuffle, but when I saw a civilian attacking soldiers, I think some part of me knew that something was very wrong."

Meshulam described his experience of taking down the terrorist as somewhat out-of-body - he acted as though being moved by an outside force. 

He also emphasized that "more important than neutralizing a terrorist, I was able to administer first aid to the injured soldiers. Once I knew the [injured] would be okay, I was able to calm down."

Police searches and identifying the terrorist

The spokesman further stated that the terrorist acted alone, after the police carried out initial searches in the area with the help of a helicopter to rule out reports that another attacker fled the scene.

The terrorist was identified as Mahmud Awawda, who had a legal permit to work in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and crossed into Israel illegally, according to KAN.

"One of the injured was lying on the sidewalk and the other injured man was sitting next to him. They were conscious and suffered from stab wounds on their bodies. We gave them initial medical treatment that included dressing and stopping the bleeding, and we quickly put them in an intensive care unit and evacuated them to the nearby hospital," said MDA paramedic Moshe Gelbstein, who arrived first on the scene.

At the end of a situational assessment, the Police District Commander, Avi Biton, instructed to increase the forces in city centers and to transfer the investigation of the attack to the police's central unit of investigations in the Central District.

Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid reacted to the attack on Twitter and criticized the unclear situation of the status of Defense Minister Gallant.

"Yesterday's shooting in Maale Gilboa, this morning's attack in Tzrifin, the tense security situation requires a clear statement by Netanyahu that he trusts Defense Minister Gallant and that he has decided that he will remain in his position absolutely and clearly. Our security is not frozen, the citizens of Israel are not frozen." 

Lapid alluded to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing the "freezing" of the judicial reforms.

Muhammad Hamada, Hamas spokesman in Jerusalem, commented on the stabbing attack: "We welcome the stabbing attack which is the first response to the war that Israel is waging in the al-Aqsa Mosque, the invasion that is expected tomorrow and the intention to make a sacrifice [there]. The stabbing operation proves the failure of the security system - the resistance is capable of harming Israel anywhere in order to protect our people and the holy places. What is to come will be even worse."

This is a developing story.