Coastal District Police was investigating a stabbing at the Kiryat Ata IKEA store on Tuesday, which they suspect may have been a racially motivated attack.
Police said that both the attacker and the victim – who was moderately injured – are Jews from Kiryat Ata, leading them to believe that it wasn’t a terrorist attack but merely a “criminal stabbing.” They have clarified that they are looking into the possibility that the stabber attacked the man because he thought he was Arab, which if true, would make it a racially motivated, “nationalist” attack.
The attacker is under arrest and undergoing questioning by police.
During the incident, a security guard fired his gun at a car the attacker was attempting to reach, lightly wounding a passerby at the scene, according to police.
The Kiryat Ata stabbing was first suspected to be a terrorist attack, as it came amid a spate of stabbings in Jerusalem and Ra'anana on Tuesday morning, or as a reprisal against Arab citizens in light of the attacks.
By Ben Hartman
