Hebron (TPS) — The Jewish community in the Judean city of Hebron celebrated the holiday of Purim with its traditional boisterous street party on Thursday, March 24, despite the terror attack earlier in the day.

The street party—known in Hebrew as “adeloyada,” a phrase loosely translated as “blackout” that derives from the customary heavy drinking on the holiday—was a family affair with kids dressed in elaborate costumes and floats coasting along the narrow city roads.

Two Palestinians armed with knives stabbed an Israeli soldier in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron on Thursday morning, near the city’s holiest spot, the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The soldier sustained light injuries while the two assailants were shot dead at the scene.

“A big miracle happened here this morning,” said Shlomo Levinger, 42, a Hebron resident who drove the ambulance that arrived at the scene of the stabbing. “They want to kick us out, to expel us,” he said of the terrorists, “but this community is only getting stronger.”

Hebron has frequently been targeted in the ongoing six-month wave of attacks against Israelis, and a large percentage of Palestinian attackers are natives of the city or its surrounding villages. Hebron is a central flashpoint of the violence and its residents have been uniquely touched by the near-daily horror.

Nonetheless, the party went on this Purim, as the masquerading residents of the Jewish community jubilantly danced in the street to celebrate the holiday of their salvation from a wicked oppressor in ancient Persia.

“This isn’t an ordinary Purim celebration,” Levinger explained. “We’re also celebrating the miracle that happened this morning.”

But, right alongside the costumed children, a large contingent of soldiers in battle gear lined the street in a less playful display, standing on alert for the first sign of danger.