Palestinian Man Stabs and Kills 13-year-old Israeli Girl Asleep in Her Home

A Palestinian man stabbed and killed an Israeli teenage girl as she slept inside her home on Thursday in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba. A civil security guard responding to the attack shot and killed the assailant at the scene.

The terrorist jumped the settlement's perimeter fence to get inside the isolated home, as the girl's father worked in a nearby grapevine.

Thirteen-year-old Hallel Yaffe Ariel was to be buried in nearby Hebron at 6 P.M. local time.

The Palestinian health minister identified the slain assailant as Mohammad Tra'ayra, 19, from the nearby Palestinian village of Bani Na'im.

An Israeli guard, 31, was also wounded in the attack, apparently by Tra'ayra who stabbed him before being shot. Security forces were also investigating the possibility he was shot and wounded by a separate force that entered the home in response to the attack.

After the attack the Israel Defense Forces laid siege to the perpetrator's village, launched searches and questioned family members. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would also revoke the work permits of the terrorist's relatives.

Ariel was critically wounded in the upper torso and rushed to hospital where she died of her injuries. The guard was listed in serious condition.

Earlier this month, four Israelis were killed in shooting attack at Tel Aviv's Sarona Market, an upscale food and retail center located across from a military compound and near government buildings.

Police said the two Palestinian attackers had entered Israel illegally. They were identified as two cousins from the West Bank town of Yatta near Hebron.

Tensions in Jerusalem rose this week as Palestinians threw rocks from the Temple Mount at worshippers at the Western Wall, injuring a woman of 73. It was the first such case in several years, and police saw the incident as a worrisome development.