A car seen with bullet holes at an intersection in the West Bank town of Huwara following a terrorist attack on March 19, 2023. Right: US-Israeli David Stern, a former US Marine, who was seriously wounded and managed to fire back. (Israel Defense Forces; courtesy) A former member of the United States Marines was shot in a Palestinian terror attack on March 19.
The victim, American-Israeli weapons instructor David Stern, was shot in the head and the shoulder while driving with his wife Rachel on Route 60 in Huwara, a town in the northern West Bank, on their way to a class in Jerusalem. Stern, a resident of the Itamar settlement, was seriously injured but is expected to survive.
In a video posted to social media from his hospital bed, Stern said, per The Times of Israel, he had stopped the car to allow the terrorist to cross the road, only to notice that “he was blocking one hand in a very suspicious way. I immediately reached for my handgun, the terrorist turned toward us, and we started shooting almost at the same time.” Pictures from the attack show several bullet holes on the driver’s side of the windshield.
Stern then fired 10 times at the terrorist, prompting him to flee. The terrorist was later arrested and taken into custody by Israeli soldiers. No terror group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hamas did say in a statement that the attack was “a natural reaction to the occupation’s crimes against our people,” per Jewish News.
Stern concluded the video with a call for the Israeli government to bring back military checkpoints. “We miraculously escaped the attack, but what about the next family?” Stern asked.
Shlomo Blass, Stern’s brother-in-law, told Tazpit Press Service, “The terrorists messed with the wrong guy. David is a trained professional at the highest level. He’s a martial art master. He’s the guy you want beside you when you’re in danger.” Various friends of Stern’s referred to him as “Iron Man” in interviews with The Jerusalem Post.
Huwara was also the location of a terror attack on February 26 where a terrorist shot and killed two brothers, Hillel and Yagel Yaniv. They were 21 and 19, respectively, and were driving in their car at the time of the attack. The terrorist, later identified as Hamas member Abdel Fattah Hussein Kharousha, 49, was killed in an Israel Defense Force (IDF) operation in Jenin on March 7.
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