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.
