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Jerusalem Man With Nunchucks Subdues Terrorist

Israel hails an unlikely act of heroism on Monday night

by
Yair Rosenberg
October 12, 2015
Flickr
Flickr
Flickr
Flickr

Israel hailed an unlikely hero on Monday evening. It began on the 185 bus in Jerusalem, when a Palestinian assailant stabbed an Israeli soldier and lunged for his gun. The attacker attempted to wrest the weapon from its owner and turn it on other passengers, but several of them managed to hold him at bay while others exited the bus.

And that was when passerby Yair Ben-Shabat intervened—with nunchucks.

Shabat, who had presumably been carrying the weapon for self-protection during the recent wave of violence that has left dozens of Israelis wounded, assisted the police, and when news of his act spread, he was quickly dubbed “the evening’s hero” on Israeli social media.

גיבור הערב:יאיר בן שבת, נכנס לאוטובוס בו דקר המחבל את החייל בכניסה לעיר, היכה אותו עם נונצ’קו עד שחוסל ע”י השוטרים pic.twitter.com/HPRPeAbDkh



— Roi Yanovsky (@Roi_Yanovsky) October 12, 2015

“I jumped onto the bus and helped them struggle with the terrorist,” he said afterward. “I took nunchucks out and hit him where I had to for them to be able to pry loose the weapon.” The assailant was killed in the struggle by police, reported Ynet, while the soldier he stabbed was evacuated to the hospital.

Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet. Subscribe to his newsletter, listen to his music, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.