One police officer dead, ten injured and an attacker shot dead at Beersheba bus station

An Israeli Border Police agent identified as Shira Suslik has died and ten other people have been injured in a knife attack carried out this Sunday at the bus station in the Israeli city of Beersheba, in the south of the country. The assailant, an Israeli citizen of Bedouin origin, has been shot dead.

The Red Star of David ambulance service has reported that a woman in her 20s who had been treated in critical condition has finally died. It was later learned that Suslik was 19 years old.

Another of the injured is serious, five have a moderate prognosis and two more have minor injuries, according to the Soroka Hospital report, cited by the newspaper ‘Israel Hayom’. The rest were treated for panic attacks or minor injuries due to the impact of glass.

The “terrorist” has been “neutralized”, according to the authorities, who have indicated that the incident began at around 2:27 p.m. (1:27 p.m. in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands), when a call was received in the emergency service.

The incident occurred at three points in the station: near a McDonald’s fast food restaurant, in a nearby cafeteria, and just outside the station. The Police have reported that they have carried out a significant deployment in the area and warn that they have not concluded the incident.

“We have asked people in the area to leave until we finish the searches and ensure that the area is safe. Anyone who sees a suspicious vehicle or person to call emergencies,” said a police spokesman, Aryeh Doron.

“It is still too early for the investigation. We are at the beginning of a complex incident and it is still too early to draw conclusions,” he added.

Eyewitnesses have reported people running and screaming at the scene. Others have heard gunshots and screams in the McDonald’s area.

ISRAELI ATTACKER OF BEDUIN ORIGIN

Sources from the security forces cited by Israeli television Channel 12 have indicated that the attacker is an Israeli citizen of Bedouin origin, specifically from Lakia, in the Negev, who arrived by bus to Beersheba.

The assailant, identified by some media as Ahmed Said Suleiman al Okbi, 29, entered the McDonald’s and attacked customers. His identity has not been revealed, but the network maintains that he is the cousin of an individual who carried out an attack in 2015.

DEPORTATION OF RELATIVES

The Minister of Transport of the Israeli Government, Miri Regev, has defended after the attack the need to deport the relatives of “terrorists”. “The time has come for a deterrent punishment that prevents attacks on Israeli territory,” he argued on his account on the social network X.

Then it was the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who has defended punitive measures for the families of those responsible for the attacks, such as the demolition of their homes.

“We are at war. There are many Bedouins loyal to the state, but there are some who are not,” Ben Gvir declared from the site of the attack. “Those who are disloyal should be dealt with firmly,” with measures such as the demolition of their homes, he argued. “I urge the Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) to approve today the law that we proposed to deport the relatives of terrorists” because it is a “recurring phenomenon,” he added.

Ben Gvir praised the deceased because “these police officers are the heroines of Israel.” “I think the biggest lesson of October 7 is that you don’t have to be so human or forgive so much,” he stressed.