The Times and the BBC reports on yesterday’s attack in Beer Sheva. The papers describe the assailant as a former prisoner with ISIS sympathies who went on a stabbing rampage before being shot dead by a passer-by. Ayelet Shaked, the interior minister, is quoted in The Times saying that “a vile and subhuman terrorist murdered innocent people”. Shaked saluted the civilians who apprehended the terrorist, saying that they should receive recognition for their bravery. The BBC quotes Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who described what happened as a “heinous terrorist attack” and that the action taken in shooting the attacker “showed resourcefulness and bravery and prevented additional loss of life”.

The Telegraph publishes an op-ed by Nile Gardiner that argues US President Joe Biden’s “apathetic” approach to Russia is alienating America’s allies. “Biden’s willingness to partner with the Russians over a new Iran nuclear deal demonstrates a lack of seriousness in isolating Moscow on the world stage. The British Government should break with Biden on the Iran negotiations, and refuse to sit at the same table as Putin’s genocidal regime.”

Also in The Telegraph, Jake Wallis Simons argues that Ukrainian President Zelensky’s address to the Knesset failed to recognise Israel’s unique foreign policy constraints and demonstrated a lack of understanding the government’s position and action taken so far to condemn the Russian invasion.

The Guardian reports that the Syrian regime is setting up shell companies in a systematic attempt to avoid sanctions, according to official documents. The documents, not publicly available, detail at least three companies established in Syria on the same day with the explicit purpose of operating as a shell to buy shares and manage other companies.

According to The Financial Times, Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh has been charged with illicit enrichment and money laundering, the first criminal charges brought against the veteran banker who many believe played a central role in the country’s financial meltdown.

Reuters reports that Egypt plans to restructure its public budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 in order to cope with the global crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine.

In the Israeli media, yesterday’s fatal car ramming and stabbing attack in Beer Sheva dominates the headlines. Four Israeli civilians were killed and two others remain hospitalised. The assailant, Muhammad Abu al-Qiyan – a 34-year-old Israeli citizen from the Bedouin Negev town, Hura — was shot dead by two armed civilians. Abu al-Qiyan was a former high school teacher who spent four years in prison for his efforts to drum up local support for ISIS in 2015 and an attempt he made to leave Israel to join ISIS ranks fighting in Syria and Iraq. Kan Radio reports that security officials have found no indication that Abu al-Qiyan had any accomplices in his attack yesterday, and that the attack is unrelated to the month of Ramadan that is to begin shortly.

Maariv notes that security forces arrived at Abu al-Qiyan’s home in Hura yesterday to question his family and find out whether they had been involved in planning the attack or had known in advance about his intention to carry it out. Meanwhile Walla reports that the two brothers of Abu al-Qiyan were arrested this morning on suspicion that they knew of his intention to carry out the attack after seeing him leaving the home with a knife. The two were detained yesterday and questioned again this morning. Security officials are worried about additional similar attacks being carried out in the near future by Israeli Arabs in Beer Sheva and the Negev, and possibly elsewhere in the country. Following the spate of recent attacks in the past month in Jerusalem, Israeli security officials expected Palestinian terrorist organisations, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, might try to set attacks in motion in Israel in the near future by means of Israeli Arabs. Those fears proved to be well-founded in light of the attack in Beer Sheva yesterday.

Israel Hayom eulogises the four victims. Doris Yahbes, 49 from Moshav Gilat, was a mother of three children and wife of an officer with the Prisons Service who oversees people sentenced to community work. Doris was also the aunt of MDA paramedic Israel Uzan, who arrived at the scene of the attack. Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky, a Chabad member and had run a Chabad house in the city for a decade, was a husband and father of four children. People who knew Kravitzky described him as “admired by all his acquaintances and friends”. Laura Yitzhak was 43 years old and the mother of three children. A fourth man was killed in the attack but he has not been identified yet.

All Knesset faction leaders issued statements in response to the attack. The United Arab List said: “We condemn the criminal attack and send our condolences to the families of the murdered and a speedy and complete recovery to the wounded.” The party added: “The Arab citizens of the state are law-abiding and denounce anyone who uses violence against other citizens. The UAL calls on all citizens to protect the delicate fabric of joint life, to show responsibility and to advance tolerant discourse at this difficult hour.” The Joint List issued a statement reading: “We thoroughly reject the terror attack in Beer Sheva and are vehemently opposed to any attack on innocent civilians. We regret the act of murder, share in the families’ sorrow and send wishes of recovery to the injured.” The Joint List added: “The just struggle against discrimination and privation in the Negev must not spill over into acts of this kind. The Joint List has called and continues to call for a public and non-violent struggle. The terror attack by a single individual must not lead to a wave of incitement and violence against Arabs in general, and against the Bedouin Arab public in the Negev in particular.” President Yitzhak Herzog said: “Together with the Israeli public, I send my condolences to the mourning families. I am confident that the security forces will act resolutely and that those responsible will be held accountable.” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also extended his condolences to the families and said that “anyone who tries to harm innocent civilians should know that the State of Israel will place its hand on him and bring him to justice.”

Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Oded Shalom urges the state to take action to rein in what he describes as a long-developing religious trend in Bedouin society in Israel. Shalom writes: “Mosques organise innocent social activities that are designed to keep Bedouin teenagers off the streets and out of the hands of the violent gangs, but those activities also point to a broader trend that has been underway. The larger role played by religious institutions and the rising tide of Islamic sentiment among Bedouins in the Negev have also produced extremists on the fringes, whose numbers are only growing larger.”

Yossi Yehoshua also writes in Yediot Ahronot that the attack needs to be viewed not as a single event but in the absence of governance in the Negev. “The politicians didn’t even bother waiting a few minutes before accusing one another of being responsible for the state of affairs in Bedouin society in the Negev. The truth needs to be said: the Negev wasn’t first forsaken nine months ago with the establishment of the new government; that began long before. The public’s sense of security had been waning for some time amid the rising tide of crime, and things peaked last May during Operation Guardian of the Walls with large-scale rioting, blocked roads and violence.”

Haaretz notes that Israel’s field hospital opened yesterday afternoon in western Ukraine, with the first patients arriving just minutes later. Housed on the grounds of an elementary school in Mostyska, outside Lviv, £5m facility fills 10 outdoor tents and has also converted multiple classrooms into hospitalisation wards. Beside chalkboards and educational posters lie heart rate monitors, incubators and reclinable hospital beds. The Israeli mission’s 100 staff members – 80 of whom are doctors and nurses – will sleep on-site, in dorm-like conditions, improvised within the school building.

Kan Radio reports that Shlomo Filber, a state’s witness in the Netanyahu trial, is scheduled to begin to testify this morning in the Jerusalem District Court. Filber served as the director general of the Communications Ministry. Netanyahu is expected to be present in court to hear Filber’s testimony. The last time that Netanyahu was physically present in court was the first day of the testimony that was given by another state’s witness in the case, Nir Hefetz, four months ago.

Maariv notes that about 15,000 citizens of Ukraine have arrived in Israel so far, and 2 per cent of those have tested positive for Covid, according to Dr. Asher Shalmon, the director of the Health Ministry’s International Relations Department. About 1,500 Israelis are still in Ukraine and efforts are being made to contact them. A Knesset committee convened yesterday to discuss the activities undertaken by ministries regarding the war in Ukraine and the refugee crisis. A National Security Council representative said that about 5,000 of the Ukrainians who have arrived in Israel are eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return.