A 47-year-old resident of the Hadar Carmel neighborhood in Haifa, who was moderately injured in a stabbing attack carried out by a 15-year-old Arab girl, said he was afraid she was “going to murder me.”
The victim added: “I was walking in the garden and felt a strong blow to the head. I fell to the ground and saw a figure in front of me waving a knife. She wore a cape with an Arabic caption and shouted in Arabic that I do not understand but one word back, and I understood, ‘Palestine’.”
“I did not know if it was a girl or a guy,” the victim said. “Because all the faces were covered. I immediately realized it was an attack. I was very scared. I was lying on my back on the ground and I tried to fend her off with her legs and she also stabbed me in the leg. Two Arab guys came and spoke to her in Arabic and I understood they told her to stop. But she kept attacking. “And then the police came and arrested her, then her father also came and cried and shouted at her and they took me to the hospital.”
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The incident began yesterday in the early afternoon, when a 15-year-old Arab girl from Haifa’s lower city stabbed the man, a resident of the Hadar HaCarmel neighborhood, in the memorial garden, and moderately injured him. The investigation of the incident revealed that the background to the stabbing was nationalist. Police officers who were called to the scene arrested the suspect, and MDA staff evacuated the wounded to Rambam Hospital in the city while he was conscious. The hospital later updated that his condition had improved and was now defined as mild.
At noon, the girl’s father alerted the police that his daughter intended to carry out an attack in Jerusalem, and the police checked the details. At the same time, a report was received at Hotline 100 about a stabbing incident at the Haifa Memorial Park. The patrol team that was staying with the father arrived at the scene of the incident, and a policewoman who noticed the suspect when the knife in her hand stopped her on the spot. Police seized the knife she was carrying, and two more knives and tear gas were seized from her bag. The girl was taken to the GSS for questioning in cooperation with the police.