The attack took place outside a shopping center
The police in Israel announced that four people were killed and several wounded in an attack in the city of Beersheba.
The police identified the attacker, an Arab citizen of Israel who worked as a teacher, and had been arrested on charges of having links with the Islamic State.
According to local media reports, the attacker was a resident of the town of Hura, 19 km east of Beersheba.
Israeli police spokesman Eli Levy said that “a civilian shot and killed the attacker,” and the confrontation took place on a crowded street.
Some passers-by filmed the incident, and the footage was shown on Israeli television.
Three people were stabbed to death outside the “Big” shopping center in the city of Beersheba, while a car driven by the attacker hit the fourth person.
Footage from the scene of the attack showed a bearded man in the street outside the area of the attack carrying something that looked like a large knife.
In another clip, the same person is shown facing a man with a rifle who shoots him when he attacks him with a knife.
This is the third stabbing incident carried out against Israelis since Saturday.
Police sources said that the attacker stabbed a woman at a gas station, then drove his car toward a shopping center, where he hit a man on a bicycle. Then he went to another shopping center, where he stabbed several other people, before being shot.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement that the security forces have been on high alert since the incident.
Washington strongly condemned the attack, which US State Department spokesman Ned Price called a “despicable terrorist”, and Price offered condolences to the families of the victims.
“We are ready to provide assistance to the Israeli government in the investigation of this heinous crime,” Price said.
This is the highest number of Israelis killed in an attack since 2017, when a Palestinian rammed his truck into a group of soldiers in Jerusalem, killing four of them.