This is a frequent jihadi tactic. In this case, actually, it’s two frequent jihadi tactics. The Islamic State issued this call in September 2014:
So O muwahhid, do not let this battle pass you by wherever you may be. You must strike the soldiers, patrons, and troops of the tawaghit. Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves. If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be….If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him….
Video of the ramming and stabbing attack this morning in #Israel. pic.twitter.com/8pEw4Fe3n7
— Aurora Intel – #StayHome (@AuroraIntel) April 22, 2020
“Israel police kill Palestinian who launched van, stabbing attack,” AFP, April 22, 2020:
A Palestinian man was shot dead Wednesday after he hit an Israeli police officer with a van at a West Bank checkpoint and then stabbed him with a pair of scissors, police said.
A pipe bomb was found at the scene which the attacker had apparently intended to hurl at the officers, police said….
A video published online showed the van hitting the officer and the driver getting out and chasing him with a sharp object in his hands.
Other officers at the checkpoint then opened fire on the man, who initially kept running.
“The terrorist drove his vehicle into the border policeman that was on duty,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in an English-language statement, saying the attacker then stabbed the officer with a pair of scissors.
“The terrorist was shot and killed,” Rosenfeld said.
The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the dead man was a Palestinian, naming him as 25-year-old Ibrahim Halaseh.
The attack took place near the Jewish West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim and the Palestinian neighbourhood of Abu Dis, on the outskirts of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Residents said Halaseh hailed from the Palestinian village of Sawahera close to the checkpoint….