Israeli leaders on Tuesday vowed decisive action against terrorism after an Arab Israeli killed four and wounded several others in a stabbing and ramming attack in the southern city of Beersheba.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said security forces would trace any accomplices. He commended the quick action of armed civilians who shot and killed the terrorist, preventing others from being injured.
“I send my deepest condolences to the families of those killed in the horrific attack in Beersheba and pray for the safety of those injured,” Bennett tweeted. “The civilians who shot the terrorist showed determination and courage and prevented further casualties.
“We will take strong action against those who perpetrate terror,” Bennett wrote. “We will hunt down and reach those who will help them.”
He said security forces were on “high alert”.
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Bennett’s spokesman said the Prime Minister was being briefed on the terrorist attack in Beersheba and was in contact with Public Security Minister Omer Barlev and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai.
According to Hebrew media reports, security officials fear Monday’s attack could spark so-called “copycat” attacks, which could lead to widespread escalation. Security forces were already preparing for a feared spike in violence at the start of Ramadan in 10 days.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett chairs a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem on March 20, 2022. (Marc Israel Sellem/pool/Flash90)
Secretary of Defense Benny Gantz also offered his condolences to the families of the victims.
“The IDF and security forces will use all means to prevent terrorist incidents as much as possible. We are on high alert for all threats in all areas,” Gantz said.
“We will ensure that anyone who encourages or supports the recent attacks will pay a price,” he added while touring the military’s Northern Command.
The four victims of a terrorist attack in Beersheba on March 22, 2022: Laura Yitzhak, top left; Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, top right; Doris Yahbas, bottom left; Menahem Yehezkel, bottom right. (Social Media/Politeness)
Public Safety Minister Omer Barlev said the attack was carried out by a “damned terrorist” and expressed regret at the attacker’s release from prison in 2019 after a previous terrorism conviction.
“We will not rest until we have eradicated nationalist terrorism, hunted down and pushed back terrorists wherever they are,” Barlev said.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid tweeted his condolences to the bereaved and wished the injured a full recovery.
“Anyone trying to harm innocent civilians needs to know that Israel will lay hands on them and bring them to justice,” Lapid said.
The scene of a deadly terrorist attack in front of the BIG mall in Beersheba, southern Israel, on March 22, 2022. (Flash90)
Other ministers also offered condolences and messages of determination to maintain law and order in the south, where residents have complained for years of widespread lawlessness, including violent and firearms crimes.
“A difficult and painful evening,” wrote Attorney General Gideon Sa’ar. “The criminal attack demonstrates our duty to strengthen governance in the Negev. Faced with the phenomenon of radicalization, it is necessary to act decisively and preserve the sovereignty of the state throughout its territory.”
“We will continue to act by all means at our disposal to ensure the safety of Israeli citizens,” Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman tweeted.
Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar chairs a meeting of the New Hope faction in the Knesset on February 7, 2022. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Sending condolences to the bereaved and a speedy recovery to those injured, Home Secretary Ayelet Shaked said she “salutes the brave citizens who have prevented the murder of more people”.
“Citizens who have acted with great courage should be recognized for their actions,” she tweeted.
Labor Minister Merav Michaeli said: “The struggle for a safe life in our country is not over and we must do everything to make it happen.”
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack “requires immediate action to apprehend and bring to justice all those responsible.”
Volunteers from ZAKA, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish emergency response team, remove bloodstains at the scene of a deadly terrorist attack outside a shopping mall in the southern city of Beersheba March 22, 2022. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
Bennett and Lapid, he said, “must put aside all political considerations and go immediately to apprehending the terrorists and restoring security to the people of Beersheba and the South.” Coalition partner Ra’am, an Arab-Islamist party that campaigns for the rights of the Bedouin population and at times clashed with other members of the government.
in one tweetNetanyahu wrote that “Bennett and Lapid’s weakness is costing lives,” and accused them of “giving the lives of Negev residents to bloodthirsty Islamic terrorists.”
Scores of other right-wing opposition politicians have criticized the government for the attack, suggesting it was due to government weakness in the Negev.
“Nationalist radicalization among Israeli Arabs is a ticking time bomb,” wrote MK Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, on Twitter. “It has to be recognized, called by its name and ripped out with zero tolerance.”
“It starts with the leadership, goes through the security services and the public prosecutor’s office to the courts,” he said.
Smotrich’s fellow Religious Zionist, MK Ofir Sofer, also lashed out at the government and was more outspoken than Netanyahu in making a connection to Ra’am.
“When the Israeli government is being held by the neck by the Muslim Brotherhood movement… this murderous and painful terrorist attack is the first symptom,” he said.
Ra’am issued a statement condemning the “heinous attack at Beersheba” and offering his condolences to the families of those killed.
“Ra’am calls on all citizens to safeguard the common, fragile social fabric, take responsibility and promote a discourse of tolerance in this difficult hour,” the party said.
A suspected attacker was shot dead in Beersheba on March 22, 2022. (Screenshot: Twitter)
Joint List MP Aida Touma-Sliman, also in the opposition, condemned the attack “on innocent civilians in Beersheba”.
“I send my prayers for the recovery of the wounded and my condolences to the families of those killed,” Touma-Sliman said in a statement.
Touma-Sliman warned the attack could lead to “racial incitement” against Bedouins living in Israel’s southern Negev desert.
“This is not the way of the Arab community in general, and in the Negev in particular, in their righteous struggle against ongoing dispossession and oppression,” Touma-Sliman said.
Arab joint list MK Aida Touma-Suleiman. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
The head of the Joint List, MK Atman Odeh, later tweeted that he “read with shock about the murderous incident in Beersheba”. He expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and wished those injured a recovery, adding: “Violence is not our way and we must condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”
The Bedouin town of Hura, where the attacker came from, “condemned the deadly attack in every way possible”.
“The attack on innocent civilians is a criminal and despicable act of terrorism,” Hura Municipal Council said in a statement. “The Council calls on both Arabs and Jews of the Negev to maintain the neighborly relations that have existed between the two sides to date.”
The stabber was identified as 34-year-old Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, a terror convict who was released from prison in 2019.
According to the Zaka emergency service, Abu al-Qi’an died of his wounds.
The Shin Bet said it was investigating the attack.
The Hamas terror group praised the knife attack and said it paid tribute to “the executor of the heroic operation in occupied Beersheba.”
“The occupation’s crimes should be answered with heroic operations: stabbings, ramming attacks and shootings,” Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanou told official Hamas radio.
The terrorist group did not claim the stabber as a member.