Overview
- Police described a multi‑site sequence that began with a vehicle ramming in Beit Shean, continued with a fatal stabbing near Ein Harod/Road 71, and ended near Afula, where a civilian intervened and the suspect was shot and taken to hospital.
- Israeli emergency services and media identified the victims as Mordechai Shimshon and Aviv Maor, and said a teenager suffered minor injuries during the ramming.
- Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered action in Qabatiya, and the army entered the town, searched the suspect’s home and prepared punitive measures, with Palestinian reports of arrests and a curfew.
- The IDF said the attacker had infiltrated Israel several days earlier, and Israeli officials are examining a possible entry through a breach in the separation barrier near Jerusalem.
- A day earlier, a reservist who ran over a Palestinian in the West Bank was dismissed, and on Dec. 25 authorities announced the arrest of five settlers over an attack that injured an eight‑month‑old, underscoring broader tensions in the area.