Attack type Shooting Perpetrator Muhand al-Okabi Location Beersheba | Non-fatal injuries 11 Date 18 October 2015 Weapons Pistol, IMI Galil | |
Deaths 3 (soldier, the perpetrator, civilian mistaken for second gunman) Similar 2012 Tel Aviv bus bombing, 2014 Jerusalem synagogu, 2012 Burgas bus bombing, August 2012 Sinai attack | ||
On October 18, 2015 a lone gunman entered the bus station in Beersheba, Israel, and shot and killed a soldier guarding the station. The gunman took the felled soldier's automatic rifle and fired into the crowd. When more security officers appeared, the gunman fled, but was felled by security personnel responding to the incident. A bystander, mistaken for a second terrorist, was shot by police and a repeatedly kicked and beaten as he lay injured him and he died from his injuries. At least eleven people, including a bystander who later died and four police officers, were hospitalized with wounds.
Contents
- Attack
- Victims
- Investigations
- Perpetrator
- Lax Security
- Attack on bystander mistaken for 2nd terrorist
- Response
- Impact
- References
This was the first Bedouin Israeli citizen to be involved in a terror attack against Israelis.
After the attack, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that citizens should not take the law into their own hands.
Attack
The gunman, armed with a knife and a pistol, used the pistol to shoot the police officer, then grabbed the officer's assault rifle and continued shooting wounding several police officers, soldiers and civilians. He attempted to flee while engaged in the shootout with police in which he was shot and killed.
During the attack, security forces shot and injured Abtum Zarhum (Haftom Zarhum), a migrant who entered the country illegally from Eritrea, after mistaking him for a second gunman. Bystanders, also mistaking him for a terrorist, kicked and shouted abuse at the man as he lay wounded. One of the Israelis who attacked Zarhum later told the press that he had seen Zarhum lift his hands towards his head, and attacked him in the belief that he was a terrorist who had been felled but not neutralized and that he was or might have been reaching for a weapon.
At least one of the wounded Israeli soldiers, Daniel Harush (19), was shot and critically injured by fellow security officers who mistook him for a terrorist.
At least four of the injured were police officers.
Victims
Zarhum was from Eritrea and was said in early reports to have possessed a work visa, although it was later determined that he was in the country as an Illegal immigrant without a legal residency permit. Despite Zarhum's illegal status, which makes his family ineligible for government assistance paid to families of victims of terrorism, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein recommended that the family be given the funds.
Investigations
According to Brig. Gen. Amos Gilad, the investigation is pursuing indications that the terrorist had accomplices.
Perpetrator
The gunman was identified by authorities as Muhand al-Okabi (Mohind al-Okbi, Muhannad al-Aqabi,) (21), an Israeli citizen, resident of the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev. His mother was an immigrant from Gaza to Israel who gained citizenship under the Israeli family reunification law after marrying an Israeli citizen. The New York Times describes the involvement of Israeli Bedouin in terrorism as "unusual."
Initial Palestinian media reports had misidentified the gunman as one Asam al-Araj of Shuafat.
The perpetrator's cellphone contained photographs of weapons, Hamas militants, and material related to his plan to attack the bus station. According to co-workers, the perpetrator had expressed confidence that ISIS would soon conquer Israel. The shooter's brother allegedly knew that he had acquired a gun and that he had increasingly radical beliefs.
Lax Security
Police investigation of the attack found a “severe failure” to provide adequate security on the part of the contractor operating the bus station. The company was required to have 11 guards, but only 7 were on duty, and the guards failed to adequately screen individuals entering the bus station.
Attack on bystander mistaken for 2nd terrorist
Authorities detained four Israelis involved in beating Haftom Zarhum (the Eritrean bystander mistaken for an attacking terrorist), after he had been shot and was lying on the floor.
Response
Impact
After the attack, Eritreans in Israel said that the killing of the Eritrean bystander was an example of racism in Israel.
Two aspects of the attack led to an extended public conversation: the behavior of security personal seen running away from an active shooter, and the behavior of bystanders seen kicking and cursing the man mistaken for a second terrorist after he had been shot and was lying wounded on the ground. Videotape of the Eritrean bystander being beaten while lying on the ground bleeding form a gunshot wound "shocked" Israelis.