A 47-year-old man was stabbed near a pedestrian bridge on Highway 4 in Givat Shmuel early Tuesday morning, Israel Police announced. He was evacuated to a nearby hospital in moderate condition with a head injury. The assailant has not been identified or caught yet.
القناة 13 العبرية: "إصابة مستوطن بجروح في عملية طعن بمستوطنة بني براك قرب تل أبيب". pic.twitter.com/weI0tnosBx
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) July 5, 2022
The circumstances of the incident are being investigated. Initial Palestinian and Israeli media reports indicate that it was nationally motivated. N12 noted that there initially did not seem to be any known connection between the assailant and the victim.
Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer announced later in the morning that the victim is in serious condition and that his wife has joined him at the hospital. The victim's wife, Yael, told Israeli media outlets that her husband was walking to his morning prayers when an Arab-appearing man approached him and hit him multiple times on the head, before running away.
She added that he has multiple fractures and that they have six kids together.
The bridge connects Givat Shmuel to Bnei Brak, the largest ultra-Orthodox city in Israel. Police identified the victim as haredi-appearing, according to N12, but he has not yet been named.
The assailant was wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and house slippers, according to police, KAN reported.
A spate of terror attacks
This comes in the wake of a quiet few weeks after a spate of civilian stabbing attacks against Israelis. Starting with a March terrorist stabbing attack in Beersheba, which killed four Israelis, the terror wave grew.
Attacks followed in Hadera by ISIS followers five days later, leaving two Border Police officers dead; in Bnei Brak two days after that, where a shooting attack left five dead; three dead in Tel Aviv; and three dead in Elad as Independence Day closed out in May.