Second suspect arrested after arson and knife attack at Binyamin farm

Update, 5 October, 21:07 Israel time

The second suspect has been arrested. N12 reported, citing its correspondent Nitzan Shapira, that the IDF and the Shin Bet security agency detained him after a pursuit. A Ynet alert separately said that the second attacker in what it described as the attempted attack at the farm in Binyamin had been caught.

Neither report says where or how he was found, whether he resisted, or whether anyone was hurt during the arrest. Neither names him. The involvement of the Shin Bet had not appeared in earlier reports, which described IDF troops sealing off the area and searching for the man who fled.

The new reports do not address the questions still open about the first suspect, including whether he was killed, wounded or detained after residents struck him with a car, or which account of who stopped him is correct. No IDF spokesperson statement on the arrest was among the material available at the time of this update.

The story as first reported

An attacker armed with a knife was neutralized at a farm in the Binyamin area of the West Bank on Monday, after he and a second man reportedly set a vehicle on fire. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said soldiers were sent to the scene after a report of a burning vehicle and two suspects, one of them carrying a knife, and that the armed man was neutralized by an Israeli civilian.

The second suspect escaped. According to the IDF, troops set up cordons around the area and began searching for him. Ynet reported that the knife-wielding man had threatened residents, who then struck him with their car, and that no Israelis were hurt.

Who stopped the attacker

The accounts differ on this point. The initial event description circulating on the day said the attacker was neutralized by IDF forces. The IDF spokesperson's own statement, however, attributes the neutralization to an Israeli civilian, with soldiers arriving afterwards to seal off the area and pursue the second suspect. Ynet and The Jerusalem Post both describe local residents ramming the attacker with a vehicle, with the Post characterising the incident as arson followed by an attempted stabbing.

In Israeli military and police usage, "neutralized" is a broad term. It means a threat has been stopped, and can cover anything from an arrest to wounding to killing. None of the reports specifies which applied here.

Where it happened

The reports name the location in slightly different ways. Ynet and its alerts channel call it Hanina's farm in Binyamin. The Jerusalem Post, in a photo caption credited to the Israel Police spokesperson's unit, refers to Hanania's farm near Geva Binyamin and dates the incident to October 5, 2026. The IDF statement refers to "the area of Ramon" without naming a farm.

Binyamin is the name Israelis use for the area of the West Bank north of Jerusalem, which is also the name of the regional council that administers Israeli communities there. Geva Binyamin is one of those communities. Small agricultural farms run by Israeli residents operate across this area, separate from the larger established towns.

A Ynet alert quoting the IDF said forces were surrounding the area around the farm while the hunt for the second suspect continued.

A second incident near Hebron

Ynet reported a separate incident on the same day at Bani Na'im, near Hebron in the southern West Bank. According to that report, a vehicle carrying three Palestinians sped toward an IDF unit; one occupant was killed and two were wounded. Ynet said the military was examining whether the men had been involved in smuggling Palestinians without Israeli entry permits into Israel. As with the Binyamin incident, Ynet said there were no Israeli casualties.

How these reports fit together

The IDF statement and the two Ynet items were published within roughly a quarter of an hour of one another in the early afternoon. The Jerusalem Post report carries an earlier timestamp. All four agree on the core sequence: two suspects, a vehicle set on fire, one suspect with a knife who was stopped at the scene, and a second who fled and was being pursued. Where they diverge is on the identity of whoever stopped the attacker and the exact naming of the site.

What the reports do not say

• The condition of the attacker who was struck: none of the reports says whether he was killed, wounded or detained.
• The identities of either suspect, or of the residents involved.
• Whether the second suspect had been caught by the time of publication.
• Whose vehicle was set on fire and how much damage was done beyond the burned car shown in the police photograph.
• Any stated motive, or whether the incident is being investigated as a planned attack.
• Who exactly stopped the attacker, since the description attributing this to IDF forces is not matched by the IDF's own statement.