Israeli Man Stabs Fellow Jew After Mistaking Him For An Arab

A Jewish Israeli man stabbed another Jewish man after mistakenly thinking he was of Arab descent, according to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz.

Israeli police confirmed that the incident occurred outside an Ikea store in the Kiryat Ata suburb of Israeli city of Haifa. When the 36-year-old suspect attempted to escape the scene, a security guard shot towards him and accidentally hit and wounded a bystander. Police finally arrested the suspect and detained him for questioning. The man is a resident of the Kiryat Ata area.

Before the stabbing, the suspect asked an Arab man if he was of Arab descent but the man convinced the attacker that he was not, according to the Times of Israel. The assailant then misidentified another civilian as an Arab before stabbing him in the upper torso. The Jewish-Israeli victim, 23, was admitted to a local hospital to be treated.

The stabbing is the second attempt by a Jewish-Israeli to stab Arabs since the outbreak of the latest wave of violence in Israel between Palestinians and Israelis. On Friday, a 17-year-old Jewish-Israeli stabbed three Palestinians and a Bedouin in the city of Dimona in Israel's Negev Desert. The attacker was subsequently arrested. These incidents have taken place amid a series of near-daily attacks carried out by Palestinians that have led to the deaths of seven Israelis in the past two weeks.

Thirty Palestinians, including a number of attackers, have also been killed in the unrest that has escalated in the past two weeks in Jerusalem, other Israeli cities and the West Bank.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces moved to seal off Palestinian areas in east Jerusalem in a bid to prevent further attacks after three Jewish-Israelis were killed in two separate attacks on Tuesday. The move was agreed by Israel's security cabinet at an emergency meeting that finished early on Wednesday morning.