Police: 4 Israelis killed in knife attack, suspect shot

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An Arab man with a knife killed four people and injured two others in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Tuesday before being shot dead by gunmen, police said.

Police said the attacker ran his car into a cyclist and crashed into five people across a downtown downtown area. Amateur video footage posted online appears to show armed spectators shooting and killing the attacker on the scene.

Israeli police chief Kobi Shabtai told reporters at a press briefing at the scene that the incident was “an abominable murderous plot by a terrorist known to security services” who had previously served time in prison. He said the attacker acted alone.

Shabtai declined to comment further on the suspects, but Israeli media identified the attacker as a 34-year-old Arab man from the nearby Bedouin city of Hura. Reports say he was jailed for four years after admitting he wanted to join the Islamic State group in Syria in 2015.

The Abu al-Qeian clan, from which the attacker came, issued a statement condemning the attack and describing it as a terrorist operation. “This is an individual act that represents only the perpetrator,” the family said, sending condolences to the families of the victims.

Omer Barlev, the minister responsible for police, wrote on Twitter that the attack was “carried out by a cursed terrorist, that it would have been better if he had not been released from prison in 2019.”

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has issued a statement of condolences to the families of the victims, saying, “We will work hard against those who commit terrorism. We will pursue and reach out to those who help them.

Palestinians have been accused in dozens of stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks that have targeted Israeli civilians and security personnel in recent years.

Most of the alleged attacks were carried out by individuals without known links to armed groups. It is rare, however, that such attacks are committed by Palestinian citizens of Israel.

In the Gaza Strip, some Palestinians were seen distributing sweets to express happiness after the attack. The spokesman for the Hamas militant group, Hazem Qassem, praised the attack as “a response to the policy of ethnic expulsion” against the Arab citizens of Israel.