Two off-duty Israeli soldiers were stabbed and one of them killed in an attack on a shopping mall in the northern Israeli city of Karmiel on Wednesday (3). The attack was celebrated by the Hamas terrorist group, against which the Israelis are waging a war in the Gaza Strip.
According to information from the Times of Israel newspaper, one of the soldiers managed to shoot the attacker dead before he passed out; the soldier was hospitalized but died shortly afterwards.
The soldier who died was Aleksandr Iakiminskyi, 19, a truck driver with the 71st Battalion of the 188th Armored Brigade from the city of Nahariya. The other soldier serves in the same unit.
The attacker was identified as Jawwad Omar Rubia, an Israeli citizen of Arab origin from the nearby town of Nahf.
In a statement, Hamas did not claim responsibility for the attack, but described Rubia as “one of the heroes of our people” and said attacks on civilians and military personnel were a “natural response” to Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
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