New details on Wednesday's Lod stabbing incident indicate the suspect walked toward a mosque and tried to enter, found it closed, then headed toward an officer responding to the scene. The officer shouted at him to stop, the suspect lunged with a knife, and the officer pushed him back and neutralized him, according to Israeli media.
A new detail has emerged in Wednesday's stabbing incident in Lod: the suspect, assessed by security forces as a terrorist, first walked toward a local mosque and attempted to enter, but found it locked, before he turned toward the responding officer. According to police accounts cited by Israeli media, the officer shouted a warning; the suspect then rushed at him with a knife, and the officer pushed him away and neutralized him, preventing a stabbing to the head. This account was reported by The Zioneer at 16:53 Jerusalem.
The incident unfolded over several hours of reporting on Wednesday. At 10:20, initial reports indicated a knife-wielding assailant was shot by Border Police officers in Lod; the suspect was identified as Sami Ahmad Ja'asus, a 28-year-old Israeli Arab resident of Lod with a prior record for weapons offenses. Further reports at the same time described the assailant fleeing on foot near the municipal complex before being cornered and shot. By 16:53, police and Shin Bet were assessing the event as a terror attack, a classification that fluctuated earlier when authorities briefly reassessed the incident's designation. The latest details from the same time frame specify the suspect's attempt to enter the mosque.
As The Zioneer reported on Wednesday, the incident began when a civilian spotted a suspect holding a knife near a school in Lod, prompting the police response. The Shin Bet is involved in the investigation, and authorities are also examining the suspect's mental health background.
What remains unclear is the precise sequence that led the suspect from the mosque to the officer, as well as the full scope of the mental health evaluation's findings.
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