An Israeli man was killed in a stabbing spree in Haifa in what Israeli authorities are treating as a terror attack.
The attack on Monday happened one day after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire formally expired and tensions threatened to escalate in the region. Israel announced over the weekend that it would stop all entry of aid into Gaza as it seeks to pressure Hamas to accept a new proposal to extend the ceasefire.
The stabbing on Monday is the latest in a string of recent attacks in Israel. Last week, a 17-year-old was critically injured in a car-ramming at a bus stop. One week earlier, empty Israeli buses exploded in Tel Aviv-area parking lots one after another.
The victim on Monday was named as Hassan Karim Dhamshe, 70, from Kafr Kanna, an Arab town in northern Israel. The suspect was named as Druze Israeli Jethro Shahin. According to footage of the attack, the attacker stabbed the victim in the back repeatedly and was shot dead by a security guard.
A 15-year-old was also reportedly wounded in the attack.
Terror attacks by members of Israel’s Druze community — a minority mostly based in northern Israel that is known for serving in the military — are extremely rare. Later on Monday, Druze leaders as well as the suspect’s relatives disputed the idea that the stabbing was a terror attack as opposed to a crime borne of mental illness.
Hamad Amar, a right-wing Druze lawmaker, said the suspect had been repeatedly hospitalized for mental health issues, according to reports in Israeli media. The suspect’s father also said his son suffered from mental illness, and that he was surprised to hear of the stabbing.
The string of recent attacks has added to mounting Israeli-Palestinian tensions, as Israel and Hamas are at odds over the extension of the ceasefire that formally expired on Sunday. The initial plan for the ceasefire called for a second stage in which Israel would fully withdraw from Gaza in exchange for the release of the remaining living hostages held by Hamas.
Now, Israel is endorsing a new U.S. plan for an extension of the current ceasefire through the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began this weekend, and the end of Passover in mid-April. According to the proposal, Hamas would release half of all the hostages, living and dead, at the start of the new phase of the truce, and the other half at the end.
Hamas has rebuffed that proposal, calling on Israel to stick to the initial agreement.
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