Man arrested in Beersheba over suspicions of planning attack

An unarmed man was arrested by police at the Beersheba bus station over suspicions he was planning on carrying out an attack there Friday morning.

Police spokesperson Luba Samri said the Arab man matched the description of a suspicious person planning an attack that had been reported to police.

She said the suspect was arrested and taken for questioning, but did not offer any other details.

The suspect was not carrying any weapon, according to Walla news.

The Beersheba bus station was the scene of a shooting and stabbing attack on October 18, 2015, that left Israeli soldier Omri Levi and Eritrean national Haftom Zarhum dead, and 11 wounded. The attacker, Muhanad Alukabi, a resident of a nearby Bedouin town, was killed in a shootout with security forces at the scene.

Zarhum was shot by security forces and beaten by a mob after being mistaken for the attacker. He died after being belatedly rushed to a hospital.

Israel is currently locked in a nearly five-month-long round of Palestinian terrorism and violence punctuated by stabbings, shootings and car-rammings. Over 25 Israelis have been killed.

Some 150 Palestinians have also been killed, the vast majority of them in the course of attacks or attempted attacks, and the rest amid clashes with security forces, according to police.

Also on Friday morning, an Israeli woman said a Palestinian driver in a commercial vehicle tried to run her over at a bus stop in the Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank south of Jerusalem.

The woman was unhurt and she said the driver escaped after failing to hit her.

Security forces were investigating the incident.

The Etzion bloc has been the scene of a number of attacks in the past months, including several vehicular assaults.