One dead in Israel stabbing attack, assailant killed: first responders
A stabbing frenzy in the Israeli city of Haifa left one person dead and several wounded in what police called a “terror attack”, as fears grow over a return to war.
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A stabbing in Israel’s city of Haifa left one person and the Israeli Arab attacker dead, authorities said, in the first fatal attack since the Gaza ceasefire began in January.
The stabbing came one day after Israel blocked aid to the Gaza Strip during an impasse over extending the truce in the Palestinian territory.
The six-week first phase of the ceasefire ended at the weekend. It had enabled the entry of vital food, shelter and medical assistance to Gaza.
The attack happened at a bus and train station in Haifa, a large coastal city in northern Israel home to a mixed Jewish and Arab population.
“A terrorist exited a bus, stabbed multiple civilians, and was subsequently neutralised by a security guard and a civilian at the scene,” the police said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said they pronounced dead a man aged around 70, and treated four other wounded people.
Police identified the assailant as a member of Israel’s Druze Arab minority.
The Gaza truce had coincided with a halt to such attacks within Israel, as violence largely subsided in Gaza after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas Palestinian militants.
On Sunday Israel’s military said it had conducted an air strike targeting suspects in northern Gaza, as the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported at least four people killed and six wounded in Israeli attacks.
The military on Monday said it had struck a “suspicious motorised vessel” off Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, and separately opened fire on two suspects who it said posed a threat.
It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that “all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be suspended” and Hamas would face “consequences” if it did not accept the temporary truce extension.
Gazans expressed concern over prices that they said immediately surged.
On Monday, Germany’s foreign ministry said: “Granting or denial of humanitarian access is not a legitimate means of pressure in negotiations.”
Saudi Arabia and Jordan also denounced Israel’s aid decision. The European Union condemned what it called Hamas’s refusal to accept the extension of the first phase, and added that Israel’s aid block “risked humanitarian consequences”.
Brussels called for “a rapid resumption of negotiations on the second phase of the ceasefire”.
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ISRAEL CUTS OFF AID AS TRUCE FALTERS
Israel stopped the entry of supplies into Gaza, with artillery fire and an air strike reported in the territory after it and Hamas hit an impasse over how to proceed with their fragile ceasefire.
As the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire drew to a close, Israel gave its backing to an extension it said was put forward by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, which would cover the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Hamas has repeatedly rejected an extension, instead favouring a transition to the truce deal’s second phase, which would see the release of all remaining hostages and a more permanent end to the fighting in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that, from this morning, all entry of goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip will be suspended,” his office said in a statement.
“Israel will not accept a ceasefire without the release of our hostages. If Hamas persists with its refusal, there will be other consequences,” it added.
Hamas slammed the move, saying in a statement that the “decision to suspend humanitarian aid is cheap blackmail, a war crime and a blatant coup against the (ceasefire) agreement”.
Gaza’s civil defence agency, meanwhile, reported that “artillery shelling and gunfire from Israeli tanks” targeted areas east of Khan Yunis city, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Approached for comment, the Israeli army said it was looking into the matter.
The army also said it had conducted an air strike in northern Gaza targeting suspects it said had “planted an explosive device in the area” near its troops.
Following the announcement of the aid suspension, Mr Netanyahu spokesman Omer Dostri wrote on X: “No trucks entered Gaza this morning, nor will they at this stage.”
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose party is crucial to keeping Netanyahu’s government in power, welcomed the decision to suspend aid.
Stopping aid “until Hamas is destroyed or completely surrenders and all our hostages are freed is an important step in the right direction”, he said on Telegram, calling for a renewed fight “until total victory” against Hamas.
“We have remained in government to ensure this,” he added.
According to the Israeli statement, the truce extension would see half of the hostages still in Gaza freed on the day the deal came into effect, with the rest to be released at the end if an agreement was reached on a permanent ceasefire.
Hamas called on “mediators and the international community to pressure” Israel to “put an end to these punitive, immoral measures against more than two million people in the Gaza Strip”.
Its spokesman Hazem Qassem later said Israel “bears responsibility for the consequences of its decision on the people of the Strip and the fate of its prisoners”.
A senior Hamas official had earlier told AFP the Palestinian militant group was prepared to release all remaining hostages in a single swap during the second phase.
Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said that proceeding to the second phase was “the only way to achieve stability in the region and the return” of the hostages.
Under the first phase, Hamas returned 25 living hostages and the bodies of eight others, in exchange for the release of about 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.
Of the 251 captives taken by Hamas during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, 58 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
More than 15 months of war created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with the UN repeatedly warning the territory was on the brink of famine before the ceasefire allowed a surge of aid to enter.
Egypt has condemned Israel’s decision to impose a complete siege on the Gaza Strip, accusing it as using “starvation as a weapon.”
But Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed warnings of famine in Gaza as a “lie”.
“With regards to this starvation [claim], that was a lie during all this war. That was a lie,” Saar said at a press conference in Jerusalem.
The suspension of aid comes as Palestinians in Gaza, alongside much of the Muslim world, mark the second day of the holy month of Ramadan, during which the faithful observe a dawn-to-dusk fast.
The war has ravaged the vast majority of Gaza and killed more than 48,388 people there, mostly civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry, figures the UN has deemed reliable.
It began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Washington announced late Saturday it was boosting its military aid to Israel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he was using “emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance”.
- With AFP
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