One person was hurt on Wednesday afternoon after a man wielding a knife tried to stab a security guard at the entrance to Israel's largest hospital near Tel Aviv. Police said the attack does not appear to be terror-related.
The security personnel at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer shot the suspect, who was taken to hospital in a critical condition and shortly after pronounced dead.
The attacker was later identified as 27-year-old Moustafa Younes from the Arab village of Wadi Ara near Haifa in northern Israel.
The family of the attacker said he suffered from serious mental health problems. “He is sick,” said the brother. “He came here for a psychologist evaluation. I don't know why he was shot. He has a disability.”
Police said although they are still investigating the motive behind the attack, it was unlikely to have been nationalistically motivated. "It seems that the background [to the attack] is criminal in nature," said the police in a statement.
Magen David Adom teams at the scene said they were treating a man in his 40s with a stab wound.
Footage from the scene of the incident shows security guards trying to neutralize the suspect, who stabbed one of the guards stationed at the entrance in the head.
"We saw the two wounded near the entrance - a 40-year-old man suffering from a stab wound, who was on his feet, and another one nearby, lying unconscious,” said one of the first responders, Adi Ben Aaron.
“We put the person with the stab wound in an ambulance and evacuated him to the emergency room … we performed advanced CPR on the injured who was unconscious and without a pulse. He has also been taken to the hospital.”