A 26-year-old Wadi Ara resident was shot and killed Wednesday at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer near Tel Aviv, after he stabbed a security guard during an altercation about his lack of wearing a protective face mask. Israel Police reported that the stabbing is a criminal incident.
According to Magen David Adom, a victim was transferred for treatment to the hospital in light condition. Resuscitation attempts were conducted on the 26-year-old suspect who was in critical condition, but he was declared dead after being brought into the hospital.
Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama-Hacohen told reporters that the suspect, Mustafa Yunis, had come to the hospital for treatment and began fighting with another civilian after they asked him why he was walking around without a mask. At one point, the suspect pulled out a knife. Security guards at the hospital brought him to the entrance of the hospital and he tried to stab one of the guards and was shot.“Next to the entry gate for vehicles we saw two injuries, a man in his thirties suffering from a stab wound walked at the scene and nearby an unconscious injured person lying on the ground,” said MDA paramedic Adi Ben Aharon. “We put the person with the stabbing injury in the ambulance that brought him to the emergency room and conducted advanced field resuscitation operations on the unconscious injured person, who was without a pulse and not breathing and he was also brought to the hospital in critical condition.”Video from the scene showed officers shooting at the suspect after he stabbed at a security guard who was restraining him. According to Channel 12, the suspect arrived at Sheba Medical Center in a vehicle with a relative.In another video, Yunis’s brother said he suffered from mental health issues and expressed anger that his brother was shot.“He even has a handicapped parking permit,” the man, who declined to give his name, told the reporters.He said that his brother arrived at the medical center with their mother, who still does not know her son was shot and killed.Yunis’ uncle, Dr. Isam Yunis, claimed his nephew only pulled out the knife to defend himself from the security guards, Ynet reported. “A man who told [Mustafa] to put on a mask fought with him and told security that there was a guy in the Jeep who wanted to stab him,” the uncle said. “[Security] stopped the Jeep and charged at him. He pulled out the knife to defend himself and they started shooting him.”“I would also try to defend myself if five security guards would jump on me,” said Dr. Yunis.SHAMA-HACOHEN confronted the Tel Aviv Police Spokeswoman on Wednesday after he allegedly revealed details from an ongoing police investigation,The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Maariv reported.
The mayor believed that because the attack was a criminal event and not a terrorist assault, he was at liberty to discuss it and told reporters that it was safe to be in and near Sheba Medical Center.
The policewoman approached him and asked him to stop. Shama-Hacohen then asked another officer to explain to her that “she isn’t being nice” and the officer responded by saying “I am not his officer [for him to admonish me].”
The City of Ramat Gan slammed the officer in a press release alleging she “thought for a moment we were in North Korea where a police officer can prevent a mayor from speaking when he wants to update and calm the public residing in [his] city.”
Joint List MK Yousef Jabareen took to Twitter on Wednesday to implore police to launch an investigation into the shooting incident. “As hours go by and more details are revealed, a serious scenario of using unreasonable force emerges and [the more it seems like a] shooting of a man who was under restraint and helpless.” He added that “it is difficult to avoid thinking that another Arab youth was shot in cold blood.”Joint List MK Heba Yazbak joined the plea, tweeting that a video that she saw shows Yunis being shot by six security guards while on the ground and not posing any danger.