A mentally ill man who broke out of a psychiatric hospital was shot and killed Sunday evening after he managed to snatch a soldier's weapon at a busy junction near the southern city of Ashkelon.
According to the police, the man — a mental patient in his 20s — arrived at the Ashkelon Junction carrying a plastic pistol which he used to threaten one of the soldiers standing there and snatch her rifle. According to eyewitnesses, he reportedly attempted to use the soldier's weapon but was unable to operate it.
The man was shot and neutralized by Col. Eliav Elbaz, the commander of the military’s Binyamin Territorial Brigade, who happened to pass at the scene of the attack.
The preliminary investigation of the incident revealed that a bus driver who was standing at a traffic light and noticed the snatching drew the attention of Col. Elbaz who began chasing the suspect and shot him while he was in possession of the soldier's rifle.
Security forces initially suspected this was a nationalist incident and launched scans after any potential accomplices. The searches were called off after forces learned about the man's identity.
"It turns out that this is a very difficult, tragic event, which is taking place in the midst of a wave of terrorism across the country when tensions are running high," a police source said.
"We are investigating the incident and trying to understand how [the man] was perceived as a threat. Further details will be revealed in the coming hours with the IDF's help."
The incident comes amid a terror wave that saw no less than 14 Israelis murdered in the span of just two weeks, and less than an hour after IDF forces executed an arrest operation in the Jenin area after the family of Ra'ad Hazem, who killed three Israelis in a shooting attack at a bar in Tel Aviv last Thursday.
According to reports, Hazem’s two brothers, who are suspected of aiding him to carry out the terror shooting, managed to evade the Israeli forces alongside their father, who has previously voiced his support for his son’s actions.
At the same time, a stabbing attack took place in the Cave of the Patriarchs, where a terrorist was shot and killed after she stabbed and lightly wounded a Border Police officer stationed at the religious site.