Roman Yanushevsky / Shutterstock.com
Four people were murdered and two were injured in Israel’s deadliest terror attack, since June 2016, which occurred in Be’er Sheva, southern Israel on Tuesday.
The UK Foreign Secretary Rt. Hon. Liz Truss said that she was “appalled” by the act of terror, in a tweet condemning the attack, and that her thoughts are with the victims and their families. She stressed that the “UK stands in solidarity with the people of Israel”.
The attacker was apprehended by an armed bus driver as well as an Israeli civilian; he was shot & killed after attempting to attack the driver. Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai commended the “resourcefulness” of the civilians who “killed the terrorist in the initial minutes”. According to the Police, who arrived on scene within 4 minutes, the terrorist initially stabbed a woman at a petrol station, then got into his car and rammed a cyclist before getting out again and stabbing several more people outside the large shopping centre. The victims have been named as Doris Yahbas, 49, Laura Yitzhak, 43, Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, and Menahem Yehezkel, 67.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett echoed the Police Commissioner’s praise, and wrote in a tweet that Israel “will act with a strong hand against those who carry out terror” explaining that they will “hunt and reach” those that help terrorists.
The assailant was identified in Palestinian media reports as a as 34-year-old Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, from the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev. He was released from prison in 2019 after serving four years for plotting to join the fundamentalist Islamic State terror group in Syria.
Although Hamas did not claim responsibility, the terrorist group praised the murderer saying that that attack “salutes the executor of the heroic operation in occupied Beersheba”. Referring to Israel, on official Hamas radio, a spokesperson said “the occupation’s crimes shall be met with heroic operations: stabbings, rammings and shootings”. On official Palestinian Authority (PA) media they referred to the assailant as a Shahid – an Islamic Martyr – therefore justifying and supporting the act.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) highlighted that the terrorist was an Israeli Arab. During the conflict in May 2021, the PA and Fatah celebrated attacks committed by Israeli Arabs and called for more, stating that “defending” their homeland is a “sacred obligation”. It is well known that the PA financially rewards the families of terrorists who are killed committing their act of terror, however, PMW explains that as an Israeli Arab the PA will provide the family of this week’s attack with an even greater reward than the families of Palestinian terrorists. They report that Palestinian families receive a minimum of 1,400 shekels/month for the rest of their lives whereas the minimum for Israeli Arab families is 1,700 shekels/month.
