Palestinians Confirm They Tried to Assassinate Itamar Ben-Gvir

Family of terrorist who carried out attack near Hebron last year says he wanted to die while assassinating the firebrand Israeli minister.

By Baruch Yadid | | Topics: Terrorism
Security around Itamar Ben-Gvir has been increased following repeated threats by Palestinians.
Security around Itamar Ben-Gvir has been increased following repeated threats by Palestinians. Photo: Shalev Shalom/TPS

(TPS) The family of Muhammad al-Jabari, who killed one Israeli in a terror attack last year, told the Tazpit Press Service that the intended target may have been Itamar Ben-Gvir, who now serves as Israel’s Minister of National Security.

Jabari opened fire on Israelis outside a Palestinian convenience store at an entrance to Kiryat Arba, near the neighborhood where Ben-Gvir lives, on October 29, 2022,

Ronen Hanina, a 50-year-old Israeli who was shopping, was killed. Three Israelis and one Palestinian were wounded in the attack. A security guard rammed Jabari with his car while an off-duty soldier shot and killed the terrorist.

Sources in the terrorist’s family told TPS that Jabari — a Hamas member who was an Islamic education teacher in Hebron —  was a cancer patient who suffered severe paralysis in his legs and wanted to die assassinating Ben-Gvir. They said it was possible Jabari thought Ben-Gvir was home after seeing a vehicle he mistakenly thought belonged to him.

Ben-Gvir initially tweeted that evening that his home had been targeted. He later specified that his wife and five children were home at the time of the attack but that he was not. Israeli security authorities said Ben-Gvir’s home was not targeted.

In response to threats on Ben-Gvir’s life, the Knesset boosted his personal security in October. Measures included providing Ben-Gvir with a bullet proof car and stationing a sentry outside his home.

Ben-Gvir has been a lightning rod for Palestinian criticism. He supports Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, and set up an office in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. In an incident in 2021, Ben-Gvir pulled out a gun during a quarrel with an Arab security guard in a Tel Aviv parking garage.

As a youth, he became active in Kach, a far-right political party founded by American-Israeli Rabbi Meir Kahane and later banned by Israel in 1994. The Otzma Yehudit party which he leads is viewed as the ideological successor to the Kahane movement.

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