A knife attack at a transit station in Haifa, Israel, killed one man and injured at least four other people, police said.
Police said a man identified as Hassan Karim Dahamsheh, 70, was killed by a knife-wielding attacker Monday at the Lev Hamifratz bus station. Advertisement
A 15-year-old boy injured in the attack was reported to be stable after emergency surgery at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center. A woman in her 70s and a man and woman in their 30s were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
The attacker, a man in his 20s identified as Yitro Shahin, was shot and killed by a security guard and an armed member of the public, authorities said.
Shahin was identified as an Israeli citizen from the Druze community in Shfaram. He was believed to have recently returned to Israel after several months abroad.
Hamed Amar, a Druze member of Knesset from the Yisrael Beytenu party, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack as an act of terrorism, but relatives of Shahin told Ynet news he had struggled with severe mental illness. Advertisement
“We are shocked by what happened. He had been struggling with mental illness for years,” his uncle, Roni Haris, told Ynet. “I am an IDF veteran with a disability, and his other uncle is a reservist. There is nothing in our family that is hostile to the state.”
Amar, who is also from Shfaram, said the attack does not represent the Druze community, whose religion derived from Shia Islam.
“Such an act of terrorism is contrary to every moral and human value and certainly does not reflect the loyal spirit of the Druze community in Israel, which is a full partner in defending the state and its values,” Amar said in a statement quoted by the Times of Israel.
