A witness to the stabbing of an Israeli couple in Athens by two assailants, including a Palestinian from Gaza, on Friday told Ynet further details of the frightening attack.

Ariel Chaim (17) was spending time with his parents at a restaurant in central Athens and witnessed the attack. He recounted that on the way back to their hotel, they heard shouting in Hebrew and realized they had stumbled onto a violent anti-Semitic incident.

“They left just a few minutes before us,” he said. “Suddenly, we heard shouts in Hebrew. I thought it was a fight among Israelis. My family asked me not to get involved but I decided to go anyway. I saw the sidewalk covered in blood. I saw two guys running in black clothing toward the Armeni neighborhood and I saw a man running in the opposite direction. I approached the man. There was someone next to him who looked like she was about to faint, and the man who was stabbed had blood all over his face. All their clothes were stained with blood. She was panicking and almost fainted. We brought them water and called the police.”

“The police arrived only after seven minutes and they didn’t know how to manage the situation. The couple couldn’t explain what happened in English and neither could I. But then my mother arrived and translated for them. The couple said that two assailants approached them and asked where they were from, and they answered from Israel, and then one of them pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the head. It turns out that the terrorists were waiting for us outside the restaurant.”

“The police caught one terrorist after 20 minutes, brought him there for identification – and the couple confirmed it was him,” he explained. “He was wearing a necklace with a picture of Palestine. The ambulance arrived after half an hour. They saw they were covered in blood and instead of coming to help, they stood behind me while I took care of them. I don’t know if it’s because they didn’t know what to do or if they were also anti-Semitic.”

Later, Chaim shared how he felt at that moment. “My legs were shaking as I was taking care of them,” he said. “I was afraid there would be another anti-Semitic incident, that someone would come and hurt me and my family, and we are in a foreign country. We went on vacation and the trip ended in trauma. We went to the restaurant in white clothes and came back to the hotel in clothes covered in blood. It’s dangerous for Israelis all over the world right now. We need to know how to protect ourselves. I don’t know if we will return to Athens. It’s really scary.”

Uzi Bukai, another witness, told Ynet: “I was escorting my friend and his wife to the hotel, and suddenly we heard screams from someone who was being stabbed. Two to three terrorists jumped on them. He stabbed him in the head and leg, and the woman just froze there, started screaming, and couldn’t speak. It was chaotic. I didn’t know what was happening either. I asked them what happened, and they said that two Arabs had stabbed them and ran away with the knives.”

“I was really scared and didn’t sleep all night,” Bukai said. “It was a very unpleasant situation. It could have been me because they were just waiting for Israelis outside the restaurants and we left a few minutes after the Israelis who were stabbed.”

Bukai said that he doesn’t intend to return to Athens. “I travel to Athens a lot. The number of Palestinians there is enormous. The writing was on the wall. They do what they want there and the authorities in Athens don’t know how to handle terrorism at all. I will no longer travel there. Everywhere is scary but when there is a large number of Israelis and there are Palestinians too, they can turn against you in an instant.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: “The case is known and being handled by the Department for Israelis Abroad and the Israeli Embassy in Athens. None of the Israelis who were attacked required hospitalization. There were two assailants. One Gazan stabber was caught and is known to have participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past. The other fled. The two recognized the group of Israelis after hearing them speak Hebrew and seeing that they were wearing a necklace with a Star of David.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)