2022 Beersheba attack

On the afternoon of March 22, 2022, an attack combining stabbing and vehicle-ramming took place in Beersheba, Israel, in Israel's Southern District. Four people were killed and two others injured. The attack occurred during a period in early 2022 when clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians had mostly been confined to the West Bank and Jerusalem; this was reported as the third such attack in that week, amid expressed concern from Israeli and American authorities about a rise in attacks that could increase as Ramadan approached.

The attack began around 4:10 p.m. when the assailant, identified as Mohammed Abu al-Kiyan, drove to a gas station on Derech Hevron street, where he stabbed and killed a female employee. He then drove to the BIG shopping center, where he ran over a Chabad rabbi riding a bicycle, killing him. He proceeded to a neighboring shopping mall, where he fatally stabbed a 47-year-old woman in the clothing section, then ran toward a roundabout and killed a 67-year-old man. Bus driver Arthur Chaimov approached the scene, initially believing a car crash had occurred, and upon realizing the man was armed with a knife, told him to surrender. The assailant lunged at Chaimov, who shot and killed him. Another man was reported to have also fired at the assailant, though his identity was not established by police. Police arrived roughly four minutes after being alerted. The rampage lasted an estimated eight minutes and was described as the deadliest attack of its kind in Israel since the 2017 Jerusalem truck attack.

Mohammed Abu al-Kiyan was described as a Hura-born member of Israel's Negev Bedouin community and a former school teacher. He had previously been imprisoned between 2016 and 2020 after being reported to have taught schoolchildren to support the Islamic State and spread pro-ISIL propaganda, and had reportedly expressed a wish to join ISIL in Syria. He was sentenced to prison in 2016 for promoting ISIL, later apologized, and was released in 2019. A relative told Kan 11 that the family was "mentally stable" and shocked by the killings.

The attack was praised by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, and by Hezbollah, while ISIL made no statement. It was condemned by numerous Israeli political figures, the Ra'am party, United Nations representative Tor Wennesland, U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Nides, Ukraine's ambassador to Israel, the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kiyan's home in Hura was searched by the Shin Bet, his brothers were arrested on suspicion of providing the knife used in the attack, and Channel 12 reported around 20 arrests during the investigation. The following day, Israel's Cabinet approved a plan to build ten new towns in the Negev in response. Police Minister Omer Bar-Lev drew criticism for remarks made at a victim's funeral and later apologized. Applications for firearms licenses in Israel reportedly rose sharply in the days following the attack.