At least two people have been wounded, one severely, in a stabbing attack in a shopping centre in northern Israel, according to police.

The attack took place on the second floor of the Hutzot Karmiel Mall in the northern Israeli city of Karmiel on Wednesday.

Keep reading

list of 4 itemsend of list

Israel’s national ambulance service said medics were treating two men in their 20s, one in a very serious condition and the other fully conscious.

Video footage from the scene shared on social media, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, showed people in the mall trying to give medical care to one of the wounded victims, who was wearing a green uniform.

Police said the suspect, who was not named, was “neutralised”, and they were investigating the incident as a possible “terror attack”.

The mall’s entrances were closed by police as they conducted extensive search and combing operations in the area, Israeli radio reported.

People gather outside a shopping mall following a stabbing attack in Karmiel, northern Israel, on July 3, 2024 [Avi Ohayon/Reuters]

Israeli police, who suspect a Palestinian Israeli of carrying out the attack, have also moved into an Arab village near the city, according to Israeli radio.

Tensions between Israel and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have spiked during Israel’s war on Gaza, during which Israeli forces have carried out near daily raids on the territory. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed and 5,300 wounded during the raids.

Reporting from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said: “It’s impossible to separate what happens inside Israel with regard to the stabbing attack from the dynamics of occupation in the West Bank or the war in Gaza.”

“Tensions have been rising and they have been reaching boiling point,” Odeh said, also referring to the frequent army raids on Palestinian groups, rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages, and deadly Palestinian street attacks.

“All this pushes Palestinians in despair and anger towards Israeli policies that push them out of their land and make their life unbearable, no matter where they are,” she added.

On Wednesday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that at least 37,953 people have been killed and 87,266 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7.