The "knife intifada" ratcheted up a few notches Oct. 18 and metamorphosed. Until now, the incidents were characterized as "lone wolf" attacks in which the perpetrator targets bystanders and attempts to harm as many people as he can before he is neutralized or killed. But a turnabout occurred Oct. 18 involving real firearms and an Israeli Bedouin terrorist, and the accidental lynching of an illegal Eritrean worker who was mistaken for another terrorist.
Security cameras that filmed the chaotic scene in the Beersheba central bus station captured the terror, panic and pandemonium caused by an isolated terrorist armed with a handgun. At 7:30 p.m., the terrorist burst into one of the bus platforms, shot and killed a Golani Brigade soldier and snatched his gun. He succeeded in wounding several more civilians and soldiers until he was killed by police.
