HAIFA, (Israel): A stabbing in Israel’s city of Haifa on Monday 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. Israel’s decision prompted the United Nations to call for an immediate restoration of the aid.
Monday’s 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.
After the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, repeated attacks — often involving knives — killed or wounded people in Israel. Authorities often blamed “terrorists”, a term they use for incidents linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Until Monday, 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.
Hamas’s attack that sparked the Gaza war resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians, while Israel’s military retaliation in Gaza has killed more than 48,300 people, also mostly civilians, data from both sides show.
Truce mediators Egypt and Qatar accused Israel of blatantly violating the ceasefire deal by halting aid, a move which according to AFP images left trucks loaded with goods lined up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing to Gaza.
The truce also saw the exchange of prisoners and hostages between Israel and Hamas.
Of the 251 captives taken during Hamas’s attack, 58 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
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