A 17-year-old Palestinian man stabbed Hallel Ariel, a 13-year-old American girl living in Israel, to death early Thursday morning while she slept in her West Bank home.
According to NBC, Muhammad Tarayra — whom the Israel Defense Forces identified as a “terrorist” — gained entrance to the Ariel family home by hopping a security fence.
He attacked a security guard before he barged into Hallel’s room and repeatedly stabbed her.
The IDF posted a photo of the crime scene online.
CAUTION: GRAPHIC
This morning a teenage girl was violently stabbed in her bedroom by a #Palestinian terrorist. pic.twitter.com/Pege3V5Nmt
— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) June 30, 2016
An Israeli ambulance and soldiers are seen outside a house in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank where a 13-year-old Israeli girl was fatally stabbed on June 30 (Getty Images)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack in a statement Thursday afternoon.
“The horrifying murder of a young girl in her bed underscores the bloodlust and inhumanity of the incitement-driven terrorists that we are facing,” he wrote. “The entire nation deeply identifies with the family’s pain and declares to the murderers.”
“The entire world needs to condemn this murder just as it condemned the terrorist attacks in Orlando and Brussels,” he continued. “I expect the Palestinian leadership to clearly and unequivocally condemn this vicious murder and take immediate action to stop the incitement.”