‘A bad look in his eyes’: Beersheba terror victim recounts attack from hospital bed
Husbands of Laura Yitzhak and Doris Yahbas, who were killed in the attack, describe hearing the news; police bolster forces, make arrests ahead of Ramadan
Hila Avisror, one of two people wounded in the fatal terror attack that occurred in Beersheba earlier this week, recounted the horrific event on Thursday as she continues to recover in the hospital.
“I did not think it would get to this,” the mother of three told Hebrew media. “We went shopping in town and I went into the store, then he came from behind and stabbed me twice.”
“I fell while he was moving towards the other girl, and as soon as he stabbed me I realized it was a terror attack. He looked me in the eyes and did not speak, he had a look of anger, a bad look in his eyes,” she said.
Avisror, who was in the area for her birthday, said she was so surprised by the attack that she did not even have the opportunity to fight him back. Laying on the ground, she attempted to get up and run back to her car, where her husband was waiting.
“When I got to the car I saw the terrorist coming out of the store. I told my husband to drive because I was afraid he would hurt us, and I was bleeding through all of this,” she said.
“I am sorry for those for whom a miracle did not happen, but a miracle happened to me and I received my life back as a gift. I share the grief of the [bereaved] families and hope we do not hear of any more such things,” she said.
Four people were killed and two others injured by a knifeman on Tuesday in a rampage that started at a gas station and ended at a shopping center. The terrorist — 34-year-old Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, from the Bedouin town of Hura in the Negev — was eventually confronted and shot dead by two armed civilians.
The fatalities were later named as Doris Yahbas, 49, a mother of three; Laura Yitzhak, 43, another mother of three; Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, a father of four; and Menahem Yehezkel, 67.
Yitzhak’s husband Tal described to Channel 13 the moments he was told that she was hurt in the attack.
“I got a phone call from a friend. He told me: ‘Tal, they stabbed Laura,'” he said. “I told him: ‘It can’t be.’ He said: ‘Tal, I’m not joking, get over here now!”
Tal described her as a loving and caring mother and person, saying that they were always at each other’s side.
“Everything was always done with laughter and happiness, she was the pillar of our home,” he said. “The hardest part was telling the girls. They’re broken.”
Yahbas’ husband Yossi also described the first moments after the attack.
“I got a phone call from my son: ‘Dad, they’re stabbing mom!’ I didn’t understand what was happening, I ran as fast as I could to my car,” he said.
Yossi, who a month and a half earlier lost his mother, said the family of five had been planning to go on vacation.
“I still haven’t recovered [from my mother], we all wanted to go on a holiday, to be together, to gather our strength. But she [Doris] left on her own, and left us alone here,” he said.
Talking about the attacker, Yossi described him as an “extreme person, an individual who sows hate among all of us.”
“[Doris] was always a woman of peace, of love. She never hated anyone,” he said. “This is how we were raised and how we raised our kids.”
Meanwhile, Channel 12 reported that following the attack and with the Ramadan holiday approaching, the Israel Police are bolstering their forces, not only in the Jerusalem area but also in the Negev, Wadi Ara, and mixed cities such as Haifa, Ramle, and Jaffa.
Police said earlier this week that though current intelligence indicates that while the attack was carried out in Beersheba, Jerusalem is the main point of friction and is where future terror attacks are more likely to take place.
Last spring saw events in Jerusalem surrounding the Temple Mount and looming evictions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood snowball into an 11-day war between Israel and terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
Fearing a recurrence of last May’s violence between Israelis and the Palestinians, the Biden administration is urging Israel to take preemptive actions in order to prevent a similar eruption this coming April, which will see a confluence of the Jewish holiday of Passover, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Christian holiday of Easter.
Channel 12 reported that police have already detained 20 suspected individuals, with more arrests said to follow as Ramadan nears.
