Two moderately wounded, two others lightly hurt; Shin Bet confirms it’s probing why the assailant was let into Israel after being interrogated at airport
Four people were wounded Tuesday evening by a terrorist who went on a stabbing spree in a trendy Tel Aviv neighborhood, emergency services and Israel Police said, before he was shot dead.
The assailant who carried out the stabbing was Moroccan national Abdelaziz Kaddi, a US green card holder, according to an ID found on his body. He was shot dead at the scene.
Kaddi was flagged by security when he arrived in the country a few days ago but was nonetheless granted entry, a decision the Shin Bet said late Tuesday it was investigating.
It was the second terror stabbing in three days in the Israeli metropolis.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said four people were wounded in the attack in Nahalat Binyamin. The victims include two men aged 24 and 28 in moderate condition, and two others aged 24 and 59 in good condition, MDA said.
Kaddi entered Israel on January 18 with a tourist visa.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel said that immigration officials had identified Kaddi as a threat when he arrived in the country at Ben Gurion Airport and sought to bar him from entry. He was handed over to security officials for questioning.
“To my regret, they decided to allow his entry into Israel,” Arbel said in a statement. He called on the Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to investigate the incident, which the security agency shortly later confirmed it was doing.
“Upon the subject’s entry into Israel, he underwent a security assessment that included his interrogation as well as additional checks, at the end of which it was decided that there was no information that established grounds to prevent his entry into Israel for security reasons,” the Shin Bet said in response to a query.
The attacker apparently stabbed three people before running to an adjacent street, where he wounded a fourth person.
Victims were taken to the city’s Ichilov Hospital.
Amid varying reports on who shot the assailant, the Ynet outlet cited members of an unspecified special forces unit, apparently off-duty, who said they noticed the attack in progress.
“We came down from an apartment and saw a stabber dropping someone to the ground. We shouted to him to stop and fired when he didn’t comply,” one of them told the outlet, without being identified.
Eyewitnesses told Hebrew media the terrorist arrived on a motorcycle ridden by another person who then left the scene.
Police combed the surrounding area looking for possible accomplices.
The attack came three days after a man in his 30s was seriously injured in another terrorist stabbing in Tel Aviv.
He was also taken to Ichilov Hospital which later said his condition was stable and there was no threat to his life.
The terrorist in that incident was identified as Salah Yahye, 19, from the West Bank city of Tulkarem.
He was in Israel illegally, according to defense sources. Medics said he was shot dead at the scene.
As reported by The Times of Israel