A man wielding a knife stabbed several people and ran over another in southern Israel, killing four, in one of the deadliest attacks in the country in recent years.
The assailant, who Israeli media identified as a Bedouin man who previously tried to join the Islamic State terrorist group, was shot dead by locals after the attack in the southern city of Beersheba, police said.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett promised to crack down on “terrorists” following the bloodshed that began shortly after 4pm on Tuesday (1am Wednesday AEDT) and unfolded at a petrol station and on a street outside a nearby shopping centre.
Liraz Zrihan, a 25-year-old who was washing her car at the petrol station when the rampage began, said she saw the attacker holding a long knife, “like a sword”, while spinning around and looking for people to stab.
According to police and the Magen David Adom emergency medical responders, the assailant stabbed one woman at the petrol station, used his car to run over a man in his 60s on a bicycle, and stabbed several others outside the shopping centre before he was shot.
Police have not officially identified the suspect. But multiple Israeli media outlets reported the attacker was Mohammed Abu al-Kiyan, a former schoolteacher in his 30s from the Bedouin community of Hura, near Beersheba, who was previously convicted over seeking ties with ISIS and preaching jihadist ideology.
Read the article by Danielle Cheslow in The Australian.