TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – MARCH 20: Israeli Fire Department crew spray disinfectants as they sanitize the entrance to Tel Aviv’s Hospital on March 20, 2020 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Number of coronavirus in Israel continues to jump, after over 200 new cases have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images) A knife-wielding man who stabbed a security guard at the entrance to a Tel Aviv-area hospital was shot and killed by security officers.
Mustafa Yunes, 26, from the Arab-Israeli village of Arara, in northern Israel, attacked the security guard at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer following a row with shoppers at a nearby shopping center over his not wearing a mask, Israel’s Channel 12 first reported. Yunes had brandished the knife in front of the shoppers and put it away. He reportedly became angry when guards stopped him at the main entrance to the Tel Aviv-area medical center because he was carrying a knife.
Yunes, who had an appointment with psychiatric services at Sheba, stabbed a security guard before at least three guards fired shots at the assailant. Yunes later died of his injuries. The guard was lightly injured.
The incident which was captured on video broadcast by Channel 12, will be investigated, according to the report. Israeli officials have ruled out a nationalist motive for the stabbing.
Yunes’ family said he suffered from serious mental health problems.
“He is sick,” Yunes’ brother told Ynet. “He came here for a psychologist evaluation. I don’t know why he was shot. He has a disability.”
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.