Hamas: "Heroic"

Terror attack at bus station in Israel: one dead

(Bild: AFP/JACK GUEZ)

One person has been killed and several injured in an attack in the Israeli port city of Haifa. An attacker had attacked people with a knife at a central bus station - the police called it a "terrorist attack".

According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, the victim was said to be around 70 years old. In addition, a teenager and three other people were injured. The news portal "Ynet" reported that the attacker is said to have been an Israeli Arab.

Knife attacker came by bus
According to eyewitnesses, the attacker got off a bus at the central bus station in Haifa and began stabbing people with a knife. He was then shot dead by a security guard and a civilian.

(Bild: AFP/JACK GUEZ)

The crime scene at the bus station after the attack

(Bild: AFP/MENAHEM KAHANA)

The perpetrator was killed. According to the police, the attacker had only recently returned to Israel from abroad. "The terrorist, an Israeli Druze from Shefar'am, had spent the past few months abroad and had returned to Israel last week," explained the police. 

Attacker had German citizenship
The Druze are a minority in Israel whose religion has its origins in Islam. As the German news agency dpa reported, the perpetrator was also a German citizen.

"Another terrible, cowardly terrorist attack, this time in Haifa." His thoughts are with the victims. "People on both sides must stand up to such inexcusable crimes," commented the German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, on Platform X. 

Hamas speaks of "natural reaction"
The terrorist organization Hamas, on the other hand, rejoiced at the attack and called the act "heroic". It called on Palestinians to commit further atrocities against Israel. The current incident in Haifa was a "natural reaction to the crimes of the occupying power against our people in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem".

On Thursday, 13 people were injured in a "suspected terrorist attack" near Haifa. A driver crashed his car into a group of people at a junction. He was stopped. The man was a 53-year-old Palestinian from Jenin in the occupied West Bank who was staying in Israel illegally.