Two people have been killed in what Israeli police are calling a “rolling terror attack” that stretched across northern Israel, marking a dramatic escalation of violence.
The horror began in the eastern city of Beit Shean. Police say the attacker first ran over a pedestrian with a vehicle. But he wasn’t finished. The assailant then drove approximately 8 miles (12.5km) west to the area near Ein Harod, where he exited his vehicle and stabbed a woman. The victims have been identified as a 68-year-old man killed in the ramming and an 18-year-old woman killed in the stabbing. A 16-year-old boy was also injured in the initial car attack.
The suspect, a 37-year-old man from the village of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank, was ultimately shot and wounded by a civilian outside the city of Afula, according to police, ending his violent spree. Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster reports the suspect had been working illegally in Israel and used his employer’s vehicle to carry out the attacks.
The Israeli response was swift and severe. Defense Minister Israel Katz stated he instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to act “forcefully and immediately.” The IDF confirmed it was preparing for an operation in the Qabatiya area, revealing that the suspect had “infiltrated into Israeli territory several days ago.”
Why It Matters
This attack did not occur in a vacuum. It comes just one day after a shocking, videotaped incident in the West Bank, where an Israeli army reservist drove a quad bike into a Palestinian man who was praying on a roadside. The military later said the soldier had been fired and his weapon confiscated. This tit-for-tat violence underscores the dangerously volatile atmosphere.
The context is a cycle of escalating bloodshed. Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have surged in the West Bank in recent years, according to the United Nations. This latest “rolling terror attack” inside Israel proper will likely fuel further calls for harsh retaliation, raising fears of a new, intense spiral of violence as the war in Gaza continues.
