Palestinian Kills Israeli Soldier in Attack With Ax

An ax-wielding Palestinian hacked to death an Israeli soldier Wednesday as she waited for a bus in the northern town of Afula, Israeli police reported.

The assailant, identified as Wahib abu Rub, 25, of the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, was identified by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as a member of Hamas, a militant Islamic organization that has vowed to sabotage Israel’s peace accord with the Palestinians.

The ax attack came just one day after the Israeli army announced that it had arrested 40 members of the Iziddin al-Qassam military wing of Hamas. The army has arrested about 400 Hamas members in the past few months, an army spokesman said Tuesday.

Among the 40 Iziddin al-Qassam members who were arrested were several men suspected of helping to plan the bombing of a bus in Tel Aviv in October that killed more than 20 people, the spokesman said. The army said it also found weapons, chemicals for making bombs and skullcaps--sometimes worn by Palestinians who pose as Jewish settlers to drive through roadblocks or pick up Israeli hitchhikers--in the homes of some of those arrested.

The army said some of the suspects were planning further bombing attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and inside Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries. The Hamas attacks have increased political pressure on Rabin to slow negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization on extending Palestinian self-rule throughout the West Bank.

Tuesday’s announcement implied that security forces are beginning to go on the offensive against the organization. But Israelis had scant time to celebrate the news that their security forces had rounded up dozens of hard-core Hamas members before Wednesday’s incident.

Abu Rub reportedly hit Liat Gabai, 19, in the forehead with an ax several times before she fell to the ground, the ax embedded in her head. Gabai, who reportedly was wearing her army uniform when she was assaulted, was rushed to a nearby hospital. She was pronounced dead a few hours later.

“The Arab ran after her with an ax,” said Ilan Tzadok, a witness to the attack. “She stood there with the ax in her head and suddenly fell. He ran. There were people with guns. I stood before him. We were afraid to open fire. He put his arms up and walked into the police station,” Tzadok told Israel Radio.

Israel Radio said Abu Rub was convicted in 1989 of membership in Hamas and served time in prison until 1991. But police said today that, in interrogation, Abu Rub maintained he is currently a member of Fatah, the mainstream PLO faction founded by Yasser Arafat.