Border Police officer killed, 10 wounded in Israel terror attack

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An Israel Border Police officer was killed and 10 people were wounded on Sunday afternoon in a combined shooting and stabbing near the central bus station in Beersheva, Israel, according to police and medics.

“A report was received at Magen David Adom’s 101 emergency call centre in the Negev region of casualties near the central bus station in Beersheva,” said MDA in a statement.

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MDA medics evacuated 10 victims to the city’s Soroka Medical Center, including one with moderate to serious wounds, four who sustained moderate wounds and five who were lightly wounded.

Border Police Sgt. Shira Chaya Suslik, 19, was pronounced dead at the scene, the Israel Police announced on Sunday night.

The terrorist rampage took place in three locations: the central bus station, outside a nearby fast-food restaurant and on Shmaryahu Levin Street, where the terrorist was shot and killed.

The Israel Police announced that “the terrorist has been neutralized and many police forces of the southern district are on the scene.” Security forces were searching for possible accomplices to the attack, it said.

The slain terrorist was identified as Ahmad al-Uqbi, 29, from an Israeli Bedouin community near the town of Lakiya. Al-Uqbi had a criminal record, and was reportedly related to Muhanad Alukabi, who carried out a deadly shooting at the same Beersheva bus station on Oct. 18, 2015.

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In March, an Israel Defense Forces officer was moderately wounded in a stabbing at Beersheva’s central bus station. The terrorist was shot and killed by another soldier who was on the scene, according to the IDF.

On Tuesday, Palestinian terrorists from Hebron shot dead seven people in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Police said two gunmen exited a light rail train car and opened fire on people waiting at a station on Jerusalem Boulevard.

A day before it marks a year since the deadly Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists, Israel sent troops back to northern Gaza and continued aerial strikes and a limited ground maneuver in Lebanon.

At the same time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is weighing how to respond to Iran, which launched a salvo of almost 200 ballistic missiles at the Jewish state last week. Security forces in Israel and abroad are also on high alert for potential terror attacks from Iranian proxies on Monday’s symbolic date.

Israel’s military launched an aerial and ground offensive in Gaza overnight, thought to be the largest in months, underlining the complexity of defeating Hamas a year after the terror group stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people.

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In northern Gaza, ground forces launched an operation in Jabaliya after issuing an evacuation order thought to be the largest since the early months of the war.
The Israeli army said there were indications of “terrorists and terror infrastructure in the area of Jabaliya, as well as efforts by Hamas to rebuild its operational capabilities in the area.” The Israeli Air Force struck dozens of military targets in order to assist ground troops.

The newly-revived offensive in Gaza underlines Hamas’ ability to regroup, at least partially. Although Israel has widely disrupted the group’s military infrastructure over the past year, it hasn’t achieved the goal of dismantling its governing capabilities. Israel also hasn’t managed to bring home some 100 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 and still held in Gaza. About half of the hostages are thought to be alive.

In Lebanon overnight, Israel conducted what it said were “targeted strikes” on Beirut aimed at Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and terrorist infrastructure sites.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Saturday that 440 Hezbollah operatives — 30 of them commanders of various ranks — were killed from the air and on the ground.
Hezbollah has launched almost 1,000 rockets and missiles at vast regions across Israel’s north in recent days in what’s seen as some level of rehabilitation of its firing capabilities. Central Israel has been kept out of Hezbollah’s target range apart from a lone attack.

Ahead of Monday’s commemoration day in Israel, Hagari said troop levels have been reinforced and are ready. Eyes are also on the West Bank, where Israel struck down 14 Hamas operatives last week that it said were planning to carry out an attack inspired by Oct. 7.

JNS, with additional reporting from Bloomberg

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