Yishai Kreitenberger, the security guard who shot and killed a female Palestinian terrorist at the entrance to Beitar Illit on his 33rd birthday. Photo: Screenshot.

The Israeli security guard who was wounded in a stabbing attack in Beitar Illit and then neutralized his assailant on Sunday morning was celebrating his birthday, the Israeli news site nrg reported.

Yishai Kreitenberger, who turned 33 today, recounted his ordeal from the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Kreitenberger, a civilian, described the events leading up to the attack, carried out by a female Palestinian in traditional Muslim garb.

“I was standing at the city’s guard post,” he said, “when I noticed the terrorist walking towards me…She was tense, looking around [as though] she was unfamiliar with the place.

“As she approached, she presented her green Palestinian ID card,” Kreitenberger continued, adding that the woman, who spoke to him only in Arabic, did not have the proper permits. “So I told her she could not enter. While I was talking, I saw her putting her hand in her purse. [When] I asked her why she was [doing that], she took out a knife and managed to scratch me with it.”

At this point, Kreitenberger told nrg, he moved away, grabbed his weapon and shot her.

Describing how he feels in the aftermath of the event, Kreitenberger said, “It’s adrenaline; it’s pressure. But thank God — I thank God – that it ended the way it did. Today I’m 33, and I can say that I received my life as a [birthday] present.”

Kreitenberger concluded by vowing to “start counting my birth from the beginning again.”

His was one of three terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria on Sunday morning and afternoon — two stabbings and a car-ramming — which left six Israelis wounded, two of them critically.

Watch a video of the interview below: