Two stabbed and wounded at Karmiel police station; motive unclear

A police officer and a security guard were wounded Tuesday in a stabbing at a police station in Karmiel in northern Israel.

According to Ynet, the Shin Bet was investigating the stabbing as a potential terror attack. The news site said the attacker “arrived at the city’s police station armed, and struggled to get inside to attack officers.”

According to a police statement, a suspect arrived at the entrance to the police station in Karmiel. At the entrance to the station, the suspect became hostile toward the security guard, as well as toward an officer who arrived at the scene to help.

“An initial report indicates that the suspect pulled out a sharp object, injured the officer and fled the scene. After a manhunt, police managed to arrest the suspect,” the statement said.

The suspect was a man in his 20s from the nearby Arab town of Nahf.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, the man was previously arrested last Saturday, after a soldier complained that he’d touched her weapon, but was released after surveillance footage supported his explanation that he’d been concerned the weapon would hit him.

Though Hebrew media have reported that the incident was believed to have a criminal motive, police said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that they are pursuing “all lines of investigation.” According to Kan, that includes the possibility of a revenge attack over the previous arrest.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said in a statement that it evacuated a 35-year-old man — the security guard, according to a later police statement — in moderate condition, to the Galilee Medical Center in Naharia.

According to police, the guard’s condition worsened on the way to the hospital, and is now defined as moderate to serious.

MDA said that it also treated a second person — apparently the officer — who was only lightly wounded, at the scene, an account confirmed by police.