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Palestinian Authority/Gaza, March 22, 2022

4 Israelis killed, 2 seriously hurt in stabbing attack at Beersheba mall

Original source

The Times of Israel

Four Israelis were killed and several others wounded Tuesday in a ramming and stabbing attack at an outdoor shopping mall in Beersheba in Israel’s deadliest terror attack in years, officials said.

According to police, the assailant first stabbed a woman to death at a gas station in the southern city. He then entered his car and rammed a cyclist, before getting out again and stabbing several people at the BIG shopping center.

The terrorist was confronted by an armed bus driver, who attempted to get him to lower his weapon, footage from the scene showed. The attacker lunged at the driver, who shot him several times alongside a second armed Israeli civilian. Israeli first responders reported that the stabber died from his gunshot wounds.

Magen David Adom medics reported that a 40-year-old Israeli woman died on the scene after being stabbed. Five other victims of the attack were rushed to Soroka Medical Centerm, where the cyclist and two of the stabbing victims died of their wounds.

Palestinian media identified the stabber as 34-year-old Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, a former terror convict from the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev. Abu al-Qi’an, who died of his wounds on the scene, served four years in prison for plotting to join the fundamentalist Islamic State terror group in Syria.

The remaining two victims of the attack remain in serious but stable condition at the hospital. Tuesday’s rampage was the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since June 2016, when two terrorists opened fire at Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market, killing four people and wounding 16.

The Hamas terror group praised the stabbing attack, saying it “salutes the executor of the heroic operation in occupied Beersheba.” The terror group did not claim the stabber as a member, however.

“The occupation’s crimes shall be met with heroic operations: stabbings, rammings and shootings,” Hamas spokesperson Abd al-Latif al-Qanou told official Hamas radio.

The attack comes amid a string of attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

On Sunday, two officers were hurt in a suspected stabbing attack in East Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud neighborhood, and on Saturday, an Israeli man was stabbed and lightly hurt when he was out jogging on Jerusalem’s Hebron Road.

Earlier this month there were several attacks in Jerusalem’s Old City, and in a nearby West Bank town.

Tensions have between Israel and the Palestinians in recent weeks across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Ten Palestinians were killed in violent confrontations with Israeli troops: some died in gun battles with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, while others during attempted attacks.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said he sends his condolences to the victims’ families. “The IDF and security forces will use all means to prevent terrorist incidents, as much as possible. We are on high alert against all threats in all areas,” Gantz said.

“We will make sure that anyone who encourages or supports the latest attacks, will pay a price,” Gantz added during a tour of the military’s northern command.

The Arab Israeli parties condemned the attack, with both the Islamist Ra’am party and the Joint List using Hebrew words that strongly imply terrorism to describe the killings.

“Ra’am condemns this despicable attack in Beersheba and sends its condolences to the families of those murdered,” Ra’am said in statement.

“Ra’am calls on all citizens to preserve the common, fragile social fabric, to be responsible and advance a discourse of tolerance in this difficult hour,” Ra’am added.

Joint List chief Ayman Odeh said he was shocked by the stabbing attack, which he deemed a “murderous incident.”

“Violence is not our way and we must condemn it with all our might,” Odeh wrote on Twitter.