13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel, who was stabbed to death in her bedroom by a Palestinian terrorist. Photo: Provided.

JNS.org – A Palestinian terrorist murdered a 13-year-old Israeli girl in her bedroom on Thursday after infiltrating the Jewish community of Kiryat Arba in Samaria.

The terrorist broke into the home of Hallel Yaffa Ariel and stabbed her, wounding her critically. She was taken to hospital but succumbed to her wounds and was pronounced dead in the hospital. The terrorist, identified by the Palestinian Health Ministry as Mohammed Tarayreh, 17, from the nearby Bani Naim village, was shot dead by Kiryat Arba security personnel.

One security officer who rushed to the scene was also shot and seriously wounded. The wounded security officer, a Kiryat Arba resident in his 30s, was transported to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem with multiple gunshot wounds. His wife, an emergency medical volunteer, was on the team of emergency responders who treated him at the scene.

Kiryat Arba Mayor Malachi Levinger told Army Radio that a Palestinian had climbed a security fence and entered a family home, where he attacked the girl.

“Two members of a response team exchanged fire with him,” Levinger said. “One of them was wounded and the terrorist was killed.”

David Edrai, a volunteer with the Israeli ZAKA emergency response group in Kiryat Arba, said, “As we were working at the scene, we received the news that the young girl died from her wounds. To our great sadness, we find ourselves time after time treating people from our own community, people we know—and it breaks our heart. We carry out our sacred work with enormous pain and difficulties.”

Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security consultation with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

“The horrific murder of an innocent girl in her bed demonstrates the bloodlust and inhumanity of the incitement fueled terrorists we are facing,” Netanyahu said. “The entire nation deeply identifies with the family and says to the murderers—you will not break us. We will continue to act with determination and resoluteness against terrorism anywhere and anytime….The whole world must condemn this murder, just as it condemned the attacks in Orlando and Brussels. I expect the Palestinian leadership to unequivocally condemn this brutal murder and take immediate action to end incitement.”