One man was killed, and several others were wounded in a terrorist attack at Haifa’s Lev Hamifratz bus terminal on Monday.
The attacker – Yitro Shaheen, 20, a Druze man from Shfaram – was shot and killed by a security guard. Shaheen had traveled to the scene of the attack by bus and then began stabbing passengers after arriving at the station. He left the bus and continued stabbing in the station area until he was shot.
Shaheen had spent recent months abroad and returned to Israel last week, police said. His family said he suffered from mental illness, reports said.
The victim, Hassan Karim Dhamshe, 70, from Kafr Kanna, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Three people were seriously wounded – a man and woman in their 30s along with a 15-year-old boy – and a 70-year-old woman was left in moderate condition.
Responses to attack
The head of the Druze community, Sheikh Mufak Tarif, condemned the attack and sent condolences to the family of the murdered man.
He asked that “before drawing conclusions,” people must “wait for the facts to be clarified in depth and for the investigation to be completed by the security forces: the background [of the attacker], origin, circumstances, and the severe mental illness from which he suffered.
“The Druze community is fighting terrorism everywhere, and the citizens who were involved in neutralizing the attack were also members of the Druze community,” he added.
תיעוד ראשון מחיפה: כוחות משטרה מגיעים לזירה - זמן קצר לאחר הפיגוע@_Gitsis_ pic.twitter.com/ibEAMh9jjg
— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) March 3, 2025
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was testifying in his corruption trial at the time of the attack, stepped out of the courtroom to extend his “deepest condolences to the family of the victim” and to wish “for a speedy recovery for the wounded.”
“We will continue to fight those who seek to end our lives – and we will defeat them,” he added.
Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on X/Twitter, “Terrorists are released and roam free = Terrorism is rampant in the streets.”
Hamas released a statement praising the attack, calling it a “heroic operation.” The group also called for acts of violence against Israel during Ramadan: “In this blessed month, the month of victories and jihad, we call on the masses of our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the occupied interior to escalate the confrontation with the enemy, and engage with it by all possible means, as the resistance will continue until the liberation of the land and holy sites, the expulsion of the occupier and the establishment of the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
The attack in Haifa followed a combined terror ramming and stabbing attack on Highway 65 near the Pardes Hanna-Karkur intersection last Thursday, which wounded 13 pedestrians.