24-year-old Jewish man stabbed in Jordan Valley terror attack, IDF searching for attacker

A 24-year-old Israeli Jewish man was stabbed in an apparent terror attack in a Palestinian town in the Jordan Valley Sunday morning. 

Elhanan Hananya, the Israeli man wounded in the attack, had stopped at a shop in the Palestinian town of al-Aujah, along Route 90, which runs north-south through the Jordan Valley. 

According to remarks from family members, Hananya, who comes from a religious family, stopped to get cigarettes from the shop along the roadway when he was attacked by the Palestinian assailant. He was on his way to a family vacation in Tiberias with his father-in-law, wife, and two children, who were in the car at the time of the attack, Elhanan’s brother, Shlomo Hananya, told public broadcaster Kan News. 

“My brother was outside the car, with his wife and children inside. It's a great miracle. He is an IDF soldier who went on vacation with his family in the area. He stopped to buy cigarettes on the way, and the terrorist just waited to stab him,” Shlomo Hananya told Kan. 

Magen David Adom emergency medic Gal Shani told Israeli media, “We received a report of a man who was stabbed. We reached the wounded man; he was fully conscious and suffered stab wounds to his upper body. We gave him medical treatment and evacuated him in an MDA intensive care vehicle to the hospital in moderate condition and fully conscious.” 

Following the report of the stabbing, the IDF cordoned off the town of Auja, preventing people from entering or leaving, while soldiers conducted searches for the attacker in the town. 

Several different units arrived to coordinate forces for the search, including surveillance aircraft and counter-terror forces from the Duvdevan unit. 

According to a statement by an IDF spokesperson, IDF troops, aided by Shin Bet forces, were continuing their pursuit of the attacker, and had expanded the search to the city of Jericho. The forces were attempting to locate a 16-year-old Palestinian boy who was suspected of carrying out the attack. 

The Foreign Ministry claimed the attack is “the reality Israelis face in Judea and Samaria.” 

Today, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed an Israeli father from behind near Jericho as his wife and children waited inside their car.

This is the reality Israelis face in Judea and Samaria.

A family outing. A knife in the back. Palestinian terror. pic.twitter.com/ko1IKcHCo0

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) August 23, 2026

Elhanan was taken to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment, where he was listed as stable and fully conscious upon his arrival. 

The Hamas terror organization praised the attack, calling it a response to recent settler violence and "the escalating desecration of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque." 

"We call upon the free and steadfast Palestinian people in the West Bank and the occupied territories to continue confronting the crimes of the Zionist enemy and its settler gangs, and to engage with them by all possible means and at all points of contact," the group said in a statement.