Motive in Afula bus driver stabbing still unclear

The motive for a stabbing of a bus driver in the northern city of Afula Wednesday night remained unclear a day later, after a gag order was placed on most of the details of the incident.

Nazareth Magistrate’s Court Judge Naaman Edris said Thursday he was not convinced that the man suspected of stabbing driver Shimon Gabai acted out of nationalistic motives.

The remand of the 28-year-old man arrested overnight in connection with the stabbing was extended for 10 days, though police did not say whether he was suspected of carrying out the attack.

Hadashot TV news reported that the Shin Bet security service had resumed its involvement in the investigation, implying that there could have been a terrorist motive to the attack.

Gabai, who lost consciousness in the attack, said Thursday he believed the motive was terrorism. “To me it seemed more like a terror attack than a criminal one,” he said.

Speaking to the media from his hospital bed, 62-year-old Gabai said that two or three men boarded the bus and stabbed him without saying a word. Gabai’s son said in an interview that his father had been attacked by passengers in the past, as had many other bus drivers, but had never been stabbed before.

Gabai lost control of the bus after sustaining a serious head injury in the attack. The vehicle hit another car and the wall of a store, and ended up smashing into a fire hydrant.

He was taken to the city’s Haemek Medical Center and later transferred to Rambam Hospital in Haifa due to the severity of his injuries. He regained consciousness on Thursday morning but remained in intensive care.

In addition to the driver, two people were treated for injuries sustained when the bus rammed into their car.

Bus drivers on some lines throughout the country held a limited strike on Thursday morning in protest against violence and the perceived lack of action against it.

“Violence against the bus drivers is a daily matter,” Haroun Shubash, chairman of the workers’ committee, told the Ynet news site. “It was clear that until serious harm was done, nothing would happen. The disregard of the police and the Transportation Ministry is hard to understand — after all, the assault of a driver endangers the passengers and those in the vehicles around him.”