One man was killed and several others were wounded in a terror stabbing attack at Lev HaMifratz Mall in Haifa on Monday morning.
Magen David Adom (MDA) EMTs and Paramedics pronounced Hassan Karim Dhamshe, a 70-year-old male from Kafr Kanna, dead at the scene. A police source told Ynet that Dhamshe was stabbed in the neck. The source added that a gun shot wound was also found in the Dhamshe's foot, most likely obtained during the shooting of the terrorist.
MDA announced it was providing treatment for four patients: three in serious condition - a male and a female in their 30s, and a 15-year-old male as well as a 70-year-old female in moderate condition.
The Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa received the five victims, one of whom was rushed to the operating room to receive surgery.
According to the police, the terrorist - an Israeli Druze man - was neutralized by an armed security guard. He had traveled to the scene of the attack by bus, and then began stabbing passengers after arriving at the station. He then left the bus and continued stabbing in the station area, until he was shot.
The terrorist has since been named by Israeli media as Yitro Shaheen, 20, from Shfaram. Shaheen had spent recent months abroad and returned to Israel last week, the police added.
תיעוד ראשון מחיפה: כוחות משטרה מגיעים לזירה - זמן קצר לאחר הפיגוע@_Gitsis_ pic.twitter.com/ibEAMh9jjg
— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) March 3, 2025
Israeli police forces are currently at the scene and have closed the area. Israel Railways announced that, following police guidance, trains on the HaEmek Line (Beit She'an-Atlit) will temporarily not stop at the Hamifratz Central Station.
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 "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."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was testifying in his corruption trial at the time of the attack, stepped out of the court room 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."
Itamar Ben-Gvir wrote on X "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 the month of 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."
This followed a combined terror ramming and stabbing attack on Highway 65 near the Pardes Hanna-Karkur intersection last Thursday afternoon, which wounded 13 pedestrians.