A 16-year-old boy who was stabbed in a Rechovot high school on Tuesday morning is in severe condition, according to Maariv. He was evacuated to Kaplan Medical Center suffering from multiple stab wounds to his upper body.
The motive for the attack is currently unclear but is suspected to be criminal, according to a police statement.
According to witness testimony, a group of masked assailants avoided the security guard at the school gate by jumping a fence in a different area. While chased by the assailants, the victim tried to barricade himself in a room to avoid the attack, but the attackers broke the door and proceeded to stab him, causing severe injuries, before fleeing the scene.
Testimonies by students of the high school led the police to arrest four suspects in connection with the attack, three of whom are minors and one an 18-year-old. They are not students of the school where the attack took place.
All of them have criminal pasts including violence, assault, property crimes and, in one case, drug-related charges. One of the suspects was recently released from prison for assault, N12 reported. They have so far denied any connection to the incident.
"A mother sends a child to school so that he can get an education and so that he will be looked after and feel safe. The incident that happened in Rehovot is extreme and unusual. The staff at the high school is very dedicated, although they were unable to intervene in the incident," Sharon Avni, director of the regional network of high schools where the incident occurred told Kan.
"The boys jumped over a fence. You can't expect a teacher who sees a drawn knife to jump on a criminal and try to stop the incident. It all happened in a few moments, and they ran out," he said, when asked if the incident was an oversight by the staff.
Educating against violence
The Education Ministry announced that on Wednesday morning all schools in the country are to dedicate the first hour of the day to educate against violence. This comes as a reaction to a spate of violent incidents, the attack in Rehovot being only the most recent one.
The ministry’s statement added that the violence in schools is part of a broader phenomenon, with other instances being violence on the roads, on social media, in hospitals and in sports venues.
“The violence in Israeli society has become a pandemic and has infiltrated the education system as well.”
Yifat Shasha-Biton
“The violence in Israeli society has become a pandemic and has infiltrated the education system as well,” said Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton.
“Violent incidents that involve youth force the system to continue to strengthen its practice of preventing violence and stopping the system in rare situations in order to hold a discussion with the students,” she said. “Our message as a system is perfectly clear: Violence will not be welcome in our schools! It’s in our hands to defeat it, adults and youth as one.”