The IDF has announced that 19-year-old off-duty IDF Sergeant Aleksandr Yakiminskyi was killed Wednesday morning in an Arab stabbing attack at a shopping mall in the northern Israeli city of Karmiel. The soldier was a heavy truck driver in the 71st Battalion of the 188th Brigade.
A second soldier who was also stabbed by the terrorist remains in serious condition.
“During the incident in which Sergeant Aleksandr Yakiminskyi fell, a soldier from the 71st Battalion, 188th Brigade was severely injured,” the IDF said in a brief statement. Although he was stabbed in the neck, Yakiminsky shot and killed the terrorist before succumbing to his own wounds, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported.
The terrorist was identified as an Israeli Arab from the village of Kfar Nahaf, in the Galilee. The terrorist’s sister works in the mall where the attack occurred and was taken in for questioning. The terrorist’s mother and brother were also arrested when they arrived at the mall after learning of the attack. The father of the family was arrested at the family home in Kfar Nahaf.
The victims were taken to Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya following the attack. Yakiminskyi was pronounced dead after arriving at the hospital.
“When I arrived at the shopping mall I was sent to the second floor. I saw two casualties, males in their 20s, lying close to the stalls with penetrating injuries; one was unconscious,” said Magen David Adom EMT Ran Moskowitz. “We began administering emergency care, including stopping the bleeding, while performing resuscitation (CPR) on the man who was in critical condition,” he said.
“We placed them in the MICU (mobile intensive care unit) while providing medical treatment, with one in critical condition and the other conscious and in serious condition.”
An joint Israel Police-Shin Bet investigation has been launched.
