stabbing

Attack comes a day after an Israeli army reservist in civilian clothes rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man praying on the roadside.

Two people have died in a stabbing and car-ramming attack in northern Israel, officials say.

Israeli police and emergency workers said a Palestinian from the Israeli-occupied West Bank attacked and killed a man and a woman on Friday before he was shot and wounded.

The attack came a day after an Israeli military reservist dressed in civilian clothes rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man who was praying on a roadside in the West Bank after earlier firing shots in the area.

“Footage was ⁠received of an armed individual running over a Palestinian ​individual,” the Israeli military said in a statement about Thursday’s attack, adding ‍that the Israeli reservist’s military service had been terminated. The Palestinian man went to hospital for checks after the attack before returning ​home.

In Friday’s incident, Israeli police said the attacker first crashed his vehicle into people in the northern city of Beit Shean, killing a 68-year-old man, and then sped onto a highway.

Later, he fatally stabbed a 20-year-old woman near the highway, “and the suspect was ultimately engaged with gunfire near Maonot Junction in Afula following intervention by a civilian bystander,” police said, adding that the attacker was taken to a hospital.

Both the victims were pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, Israel’s rescue services said. A teenage boy was hospitalised with minor wounds sustained in the car-ramming, according to bystanders.

The Israeli military said the attacker had “infiltrated into Israeli territory several days ago”.

Since Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began in October 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed there.

At the same time, Israeli settlers have escalated violence in the West Bank, seizing Palestinian land and harassing civilians while Israeli forces conduct regular raids and arrests.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank ‌since October 7, 2023, mostly in operations by security forces and some by settler violence, according ‍to the United Nations.

In the same period, 57 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks.

After Friday’s incident, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military ​to respond forcefully in ‌the West Bank town of Qabatiya, where he said the assailant came from.

The Israeli military said it was “preparing for an operation” ‌in the area.

Suspect is in police custody; no information about potential motive.

A man has carried out a mass stabbing attack at a Japanese tyre factory, also spraying victims with a chemical substance, according to local officials.

Eight people were stabbed and seven others were injured after being sprayed by a bleach-like agent at the Yokohama Rubber Co tyremaker in Japan’s Mishima, southwest of Tokyo, on Friday, said the Fujisan Nanto Fire Department.

Japanese media named the suspect as a 38-year-old who is now in custody. He is being charged with attempted murder, reported Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper, citing the Shizuoka prefectural police.

The suspect was carrying a survival knife and wearing what appeared to be a gas mask, according to investigators cited in the Asahi report. He is believed by police to have acted alone, the report added, though there was no immediate information about a potential motive.

The Associated Press news agency cited the fire department as saying five of the stab victims are in serious condition, but conscious.

An employee of a nearby car dealership said she was “shocked” to learn of the attack in what is generally a “quiet” area.

“I’m scared, but I’m also shocked that it could have happened in a place like this,” the unnamed employee told Asahi Shimbun.

Violent crime is relatively rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world’s toughest gun laws.

However, there are occasional stabbing attacks and even shootings, including the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022.

In June, Japan executed a man dubbed the “Twitter Killer”, after he was convicted of killing and dismembering nine people he met on social media. The execution was the country’s first use of capital punishment in nearly three years.

A Japanese man was also sentenced to death in October for a shooting and stabbing rampage that killed four people, including two police officers, in 2023.