Israel experienced a new round of terror on Wednesday, October 7, one of which occurred near the Har Homa checkpoint south of Jerusalem.

Josh Hasten, a resident of the Elazar community in the Gush Etzion region of Judea, experienced the violence while driving to Jerusalem.

“At 8:50 AM, I was driving from Gush Etzion to Jerusalem and Waze sent me via the route from Tekoa because of the traffic due to the inclement weather,” Hasten told TPS.

Hasten saw trouble coming his way while passing near the Arab village of Beit Sahour, about 500 meters from the Har Homa checkpoint. “I saw a couple of cars slowing down in front of me, so I went around them, and all of a sudden, about 50 Arabs with their heads covered approached me with rocks and huge pieces of cinder blocks in their hands,” Hasten recounted. “They were definitely going to kill me.”

Luckily for Hasten, he managed to escape injury. However, when he got to the Har Homa checkpoint to inform the soldiers about the violence, he learned that others had been targeted by terrorists as well, and some were injured.

“When I arrived at the Har Homa checkpoint, I saw women crying,” Hasten told TPS. “The soldiers told me that the Arabs tried to lynch a woman and pulled her out of her car. She kicked the car in reverse and somehow managed to escape.”

The victim was later evacuated in an ambulance to Tekoa for further medical treatment.

“I was very frustrated and disappointed when I was told by the soldiers at the checkpoint that none of them could move from the checkpoint to deal with the unrest and that I should go handle the incident myself,” Hasten added in the TPS interview.

“However, I want to make it clear that the last thing I want to do is to taint the IDF,” he stressed. “It’s clear that the soldiers are only following orders from above.”

Regarding the delay in the IDF’s response, Hasten continued: “I went back near the entrance to Beit Sahour and saw that IDF soldiers were standing there, attempting to figure out how to coordinate a response. They were there for 20 minutes until they finally went into the village when more soldiers arrived.”

Hasten also commented on the viability of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a peace partner with Israel. “My opinion is that the PA must be dismantled,” he opined. “Violence from Palestinians has never stopped for the past 20 years.”

In another incident Wednesday morning, a female Muslim terrorist stabbed a 36-year-old Jewish man in the Old City of Jerusalem.