Two police officers were injured in a terrorist attack in the central Arab-Israeli town of Kafr Qasem early Friday.
Police said the officers were hit by a car and shot at; they were evacuated to a hospital in stable condition. Police named the attacker, who was shot dead, as Naim Badir, a 20-something resident of the town.
Police said that the suspect first called officers to his house over an alleged violent incident. When police arrived at the scene, they said they were greeted with a barrage of stones and alcohol bottles hurled from the house. A man then rushed out of the apartment with a gun drawn, according to security footage from the scene. A police spokesman said the man tried to shoot but the gun didn’t fire.
Moments later, security footage shows the man speeding in reverse down the street toward where officers were stationed. The suspect’s car crashed into another, lightly wounding three officers. Police opened fire, killing the suspect, according to Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service.
Law enforcement found a Carlo submachine gun and Molotov cocktails at the building site where the assailant waited in ambush. A knife was found in the vehicle.
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai praised the "swift" actions of the police officers, saying that they "thwarted a much bigger terrorist attack. "Our security forces found the terrorist's weapon as well as additional weaponry he was preparing, as well as a knife in his car," he added.
