Difficult testimony from the terror attack at Havat Gilad: "The soldiers stood on the side and refused to shoot"

A few hours after the terror attack near Havat Gilad, in which 32-year-old Binyahu Melet, a father of two daughters and a member of the settlement's rapid response team, was murdered, the hikers who were at the scene recount the sequence of events and raise serious allegations against the conduct of the military force that was called to the scene.

According to the testimony of one of the hikers, a group of about 60 Jews who set out early in the morning from Har Bracha was attacked twice with stones and clubs by residents of the village of Til. The group was surrounded from three directions by hundreds of Arabs, and while it was trying to break contact towards the Gilad axis, "the soldiers were on the side, did nothing and refused to perform any shooting."

Only after one of the attackers snatched the weapon of a civilian security guard and fired, according to the testimony, did the soldiers begin to return fire. These claims have not yet been verified, and the IDF's response will be published later.

According to the testimony, the hike set out from Har Bracha early in the morning, with about 60 hikers in the group, two of them carrying long guns and several others armed with pistols. On the way, the hikers stopped at a spring near the Sela ridge, and around 07:05 the first encounter occurred: several residents from the nearby village arrived at the scene, tried to drive the group away, threw stones at it and attacked it with clubs.

One of the hikers was wounded in his face. The group retreated and continued walking along the Sela ridge towards Havat Gilad, but less than an hour later, at 08:05, the main event began, at the end of which Melet was murdered.

At 08:05, according to the testimony, dozens of residents from the village of Til began to attack the group. At this stage, only a single soldier arrived at the scene, while two other soldiers were delayed on the way. The attackers surrounded the hikers from three directions, and their number in the field grew to hundreds, while the group tried to descend the mountain and break contact.

Two armed civilians performed measured fire for self-defense — "because they only had one magazine," it was stated in the testimony — while the soldier, according to the hikers, refused to shoot.

Minutes later, a military jeep arrived at the scene, followed by two civilian security personnel from Havat Gilad, including Binyahu Melet, who jumped into the area to assist. According to the testimony, the civilian security personnel tried to push back the mob and even fired into the air, but to no avail, while the soldiers pushed back civilians and armed escorts who wanted to help. In the midst of the commotion, one of the attackers, a sheikh from the village, snatched the weapon of one of the security personnel and fired — and Melet was killed. Only then, it is claimed, did the soldiers return fire.