PM vows tough anti-terror stance after deadly attack in Israel

The wreckage of a car used in an attack that killed four is seen near a shopping center in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on March 22, 2022. (DUDU GRUNSHPAN / JINI VIA XINHUA)

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett vowed on Tuesday to take a tough stance against "terrorists" after an Israeli Arab citizen killed four people in the country's southern city of Beersheba.

"We will take strong actions against terrorists," Bennett said in a statement following an evaluation of the attack and consultations with Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev and Israel's police chief Kobi Shabtai.

"We will also pursue and apprehend those who aided and abetted them," he said, adding the security forces are "on maximum alert."

Bennett also offered his condolences to the victims' families and expressed his concern for those who were injured in the attack.

Israeli security forces cordon off the area of an attack that killed four people near a shopping center in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on March 22, 2022. (DUDU GRUNSHPAN / JINI VIA XINHUA)

Four people were killed and two others injured on Tuesday in Beersheba by a knife-wielding Arab assailant who was later shot dead by two armed civilians passing by, according to the Israeli police.

The state-owned Kan TV news reported that the attacker is an Israeli Arab citizen, a Bedouin resident of the village of Hura in the Negev Desert

The assailant fatally stabbed a woman in a gas station after getting out of his car near a shopping mall. He then went back to his car and ran over a bike rider before stepping out of the car again to fatally stab another man and woman, the police said in a statement.

The state-owned Kan TV news reported that the attacker is an Israeli Arab citizen, a Bedouin resident of the village of Hura in the Negev Desert. According to Shabtai, the suspect had previously served prison terms for attempting to join the Islamic State militant group in Syria.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which lasted about eight minutes and is the deadliest in Israel in the past few years.

READ MORE: EU: Israel's settlement policy undermines two-state solution

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks at a press conference about the COVID-19 pandemic in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Jan 11, 2022. (NOAM REVKIN FENTON / JINI VIA XINHUA)

Police forces were deployed throughout Israel to "avoid copycat attacks," Shabtai told reporters during a press briefing.

ALSO READ: Israel fires missiles on military sites near Syrian capital

Investigation on the attack was still underway, according to Shabtai.