Security forces: Israeli Arab carried out October stabbing attack in Eilat

Woman lightly wounded in attack.

By BEN HARTMAN
Updated: NOVEMBER 13, 2015 04:42
Eilat (photo credit: REUTERS)
Eilat
(photo credit: REUTERS)
An Israeli Arab from the Wadi Ara city of Umm el-Fahm has been arrested for a late October stabbing attack in Eilat, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) cleared for publication on Thursday.
The suspect, named as Nidal Yusef Yunes Jabarin, aged 24, allegedly stabbed and lightly wounded a woman in the city on October 29, after “he had been influenced by videos of stabbing attacks which have been published recently,” the Shin Bet said on Thursday.
Jabarin had been living in recent years in Eilat, the Shin Bet added.
The stabbing on October 29 took place across from a grocery store on Golani Brigade Street. Police at the time said a man had stabbed and lightly wounded a local woman with a small paring knife before fleeing on foot. Jabarin was arrested not far from the scene of the crime hours later, after dozens of detectives, Border Police officers, and special forces soldiers fanned out across the small southern Israeli city.
Police announced the arrest at the time, but said that same night that they were unable to determine whether the stabbing was criminal or nationalist in motive. The Southern District police secured a gag order on the case that same night, and no further details were published until Thursday.
Police said in their statement on Thursday that Jabarin has confessed to the crime and that in the coming days they expect him to be indicted for the attack.
According to the Shin Bet, he has no history of security offenses and has no known affiliation with any terrorist organization.