Four were killed and two women were wounded on Tuesday in a stabbing and ramming attack in southern Israel, police and emergency services said.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is holding a briefing with Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai.
The two women are in serious condition. A bus driver who was near the scene has shot the assailant, police said. The assailant’s medical condition was not immediately clear.
The assailant, a Bedouin man from the nearby town of Hura, served time for security-related offenses. A security source said that the assailant was a known ISIS supporter.
According to the police, the assailant arrived at a gas station in Be’er Sheva, where he stabbed a woman. He then returned to his car, rammed into a cyclist on Route 60, left his car at a shopping center, where he stabbed another man and a woman.
The stabber was identified as 34-year-old Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, a former terror convict from the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev.
4 people murdered in a terror attack in the southern city of Be'er Sheva, #Israel. The attack started as a car ramming and continued as a stabbing frenzy.
The terrorist is from the bedouin community. He was killed by an armed civilian.
Warning: disturbing footage. pic.twitter.com/oYBvrD6Ifo— Erez Neumark 🇮🇱🇧🇪 (@ErezNeumark) March 22, 2022
An eye witness told Haaretz that he saw a man ramming into cars at the site and thought that an accident had happened.
“I came closer and saw a man with a knife scanning the area looking to stab, he ran between cars and people.”
Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif al-Qanou praised the “heroic act in Be’er Sheva. Our battle against the occupation continues and we will not stop.”
This is the third stabbing attack in the past week.
Tensions have been on the rise in Israel and the Palestinian territories as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in April this year, approaches – a period when violence has erupted in the past.
On Sunday, a 20-year-old Israeli police officer was moderately wounded in a suspected stabbing attack in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud.
Another man was wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem on Saturday. The assailant, a Palestinian resident of the city, was shot by officers at the scene and was taken to hospital in serious condition.
Breaking: stabbing attack on Beer Sheba #Israel. Watch the Palestinian terrorist neutralized with his knife still in hand. The cop kicks it out of his hand and away from the terrorist.
1 woman killed, 3 injured. pic.twitter.com/k6Sbio4wj2
— Emily Schrader – אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) March 22, 2022
