Israel Declares State of Emergency Following Beersheba Incident

Members of an Israeli emergency and response team clean the blood stains at the scene of an attack in Beersheba, southern Israel, Tuesday, March 22, 2022. (AFP)
Members of an Israeli emergency and response team clean the blood stains at the scene of an attack in Beersheba, southern Israel, Tuesday, March 22, 2022. (AFP)
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Israel Declares State of Emergency Following Beersheba Incident

Members of an Israeli emergency and response team clean the blood stains at the scene of an attack in Beersheba, southern Israel, Tuesday, March 22, 2022. (AFP)
Members of an Israeli emergency and response team clean the blood stains at the scene of an attack in Beersheba, southern Israel, Tuesday, March 22, 2022. (AFP)

A knife-wielding Arab man on Tuesday killed four people and seriously wounded two others in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba before he was shot dead by armed residents.

Israeli media identified the attacker as 34-year-old teacher Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qeian from the nearby Bedouin town of Hura.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held security consultations on Wednesday
with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Police Chief Kobi Shabtai, Internal Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev and intelligence representatives.

Security forces have acted to reach everyone who had direct or indirect contact with the terrorist, Bennett told ministers.

“We will reach whoever aided and abetted, inspired, incited or cooperated,” he stressed.

The PM commended the two civilians who acted with “resourcefulness and courage and simply saved lives.”

Arab parties warned the residents of Israel (Palestinians 48) from repatriating acts by extremist Jews against Arabs living in the Negev.

Member of the Knesset Aida Touma-Suleiman (Joint Arab List) stressed that Arab citizens in Israel condemn this operation and consider it a distortion of their legal struggle for equality, peace and end of occupation.

Some people are taking advantage of this individual operation to “incite against Arabs in general and the Negev in particular and threaten Arab youth,” she stressed.

Touma-Suleiman recalled the formation of armed Jewish militias, which were encouraged by the police and the government to pursue the Arabs of the Negev under the pretext of losing the rule of law.

The four people killed were named as Doris Yahbas, 49, a mother of three, Laura Yitzhak, 43, also a mother of three, Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, 48, a father of four, and Menahem Yehezkel, 67, a brother to four.



Syria Reaches Deal to Integrate SDF within State Institutions, Presidency Says

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
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Syria Reaches Deal to Integrate SDF within State Institutions, Presidency Says

A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) shaking the hand of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi after the signing of an agreement, to integrate the SDF into the state institutions, in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 10, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

The Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls much of Syria's oil-rich northeast, has signed a deal agreeing to integrate into Syria's new state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday.

The deal, which included a complete cessation of hostilities, was signed by interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the SDF's commander, Mazloum Abdi.

Under the deal, whose text was posted online by the presidency, all civilian and military institutions in northeast Syria will be integrated within the state, which will thus take over control of borders, airports and oil and gas fields.

The SDF agrees to support the government in combating remnants of deposed president Bashar al-Assad's regime, and any threats to Syria's security and unity.

Since Assad was overthrown by Sharaa's Islamist forces in December, groups backed by Türkiye, one of Sharaa's main supporters, have clashed with the SDF, the main ally in a US coalition against ISIS militants in Syria.

The SDF is spearheaded by the YPG militia, a group that Ankara sees as an extension of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought the Turkish state for 40 years.

Türkiye regards the PKK, YPG and SDF as terrorist groups, and Sharaa's new Damascus administration had been pressing the SDF to merge into newly-minted state security forces.

Abdi had previously expressed a willingness for his forces to be part of the new defense ministry, but said they should join as a bloc rather than individuals, an idea that was rejected by the new government.

The US and Türkiye’s Western allies list the PKK as a terrorist group, but not the YPG or the SDF.