BREAKING: 2 Murdered, 2 Wounded in Jihadi Attack in Northern Israel

(photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE) ByTZVI JASPER, JERUSALEM POST STAFF DECEMBER 26, 2025 13:41Updated: DECEMBER 26, 2025 15:55

Once again, the grim reality of life in Israel asserts itself with brutal clarity. On December 26, 2025, a Palestinian terrorist carried out a combined ramming and stabbing attack across multiple sites in the north of the country, murdering two Israeli civilians and wounding others before being neutralized.

The attack began near Beit She'an, where the terrorist deliberately rammed his vehicle into pedestrians. A 68-year-old man, later identified as Shimshon Mordechai (or Mordechai Shimshon), a resident of Beit She'an, was struck and fatally injured. Nearby, a 16-year-old boy was also hit by the vehicle, sustaining light injuries; he was treated at the scene and evacuated to hospital.

As Magen David Adom EMT Daniel Mousai recounted: "When we arrived at the scene, we saw the boy sitting inside a car, conscious and suffering from injuries to his limbs." "Citizens who were there told us that he had been hit by a fleeing vehicle and they helped him in the first moments."

Mousai continued: Just as the team was preparing to transport the boy, they received word of another victim nearby. "I immediately got to him and saw a 68-year-old man lying on the side of the road, suffering from a serious chest injury. Together with the intensive care unit team, we provided medical treatment and performed CPR, but his injury was fatal and we had to pronounce him dead on the spot."

The terrorist then fled, driving along Route 71 where he stopped to stab an 18- or 19-year-old young woman, Aviv Maor, who was killed at the scene.

Continuing toward Afula, the attacker attempted another assault. A 37-year-old man was moderately wounded there, according to a witness speaking to i24news: "The terrorist missed him and ran into an electric pole." "He got out of the vehicle, picked up a huge rock, and brought it down on his head. Immediately afterward the police arrived and took him down."

The terrorist, identified as Ahmad Abu al-Rub (or similar silly variations), a resident of Qabatiya in the West Bank, had illegally infiltrated Israel days earlier. Reports indicate he was employed by an Israeli citizen and used his employer's vehicle in the attack. He was ultimately neutralized by security forces and a civilian bystander, and evacuated to hospital in moderate condition.

In response, Defense Minister Israel Katz directed the IDF to prepare operations in Qabatiya. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for strengthened Israeli control over Judea and Samaria and an end to the employment of illegal residents. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar pointed to the Palestinian Authority's ongoing incitement and payments to terrorists.

Hamas, predictably, praised the carnage, declaring that "Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right guaranteed by international law and humanitarian principles for peoples living under occupation."

President Isaac Herzog conveyed condolences to local leaders, while the IDF Chief of Staff conducted assessments.

This is yet another reminder—were one needed—of the persistent ideology that drives such acts: an unyielding refusal to accept Jewish sovereignty in any part of the land, coupled with a culture that too often celebrates the murderer as martyr. While the world rushes to equivocate or look away, Israelis bury their dead and carry on. 

This story remains developing.

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