Police: Beersheba attacker was in contact with Hamas, planned attack well in advance

The attacker in one of the most brutal terrorist attacks in Israel lately was found to have been in contact with Hamas prior to the attack showing that the attack was well-planned in advance.

The media will lead you to believe that these are just random attacks by poor, oppressed Palestinians but in essence, this is a coordinated wave of Islamic terror attacks against their mortal enemy, the Jews.

The story comes from The Jerusalem Post.

Police: Beersheba attacker was in contact with Hamas, planned attack well in advance

An Israeli Beduin who carried out a deadly attack last week at the Beersheba central bus station was in contact with Hamas before the attack, which was planned well in advance, Negev police said Sunday.

Investigators working the case found that before the attack – during which Muhand al-Uqbi, a 21-year-old native of Hura, shot and killed IDF soldier Omri Levi and wounded several other Israelis – al-Uqbi had been in contact with Hamas for a long period of time before the attack and that on his phone he had pictures of Hamas members, weapons, and other materials.

That information came to light in a statement put out by the Negev police on Sunday, as they presented a pre-indictment motion against al-Uqbi’s brother, who will be charged with failing to prevent a crime, after investigators determined that he knew his brother had acquired a pistol and was “going through a process of radicalization due to the events on the Temple Mount and did not report it.”

The statement on Sunday also revealed a series of details about the attack that had been under a gag order up until then.

According to police, last Sunday at 7:24 pm, al-Uqbi – armed with a handgun - slipped into the bus station by way of an entryway next to the McDonald’s at the station. Moments later Levi passed through the same entrance and al-Uqbi began to follow him, police said, in order to kill him and steal his assault rifle.

Police said al-Uqbi then saw Levi head towards a bathroom at the station and he followed the soldier into the bathroom, pulled out his pistol, shot him dead at point blank range and stole his rifle.

After stealing the rifle, al-Uqbi opened fire at a group of police officers who heard the gunshot and were on their way to the bathroom. He then fled towards the dumpsters behind the station, where he was shot by YASSAM special patrol officers.

Next to his body a knife was found, but it was not used in the attack, police said.

At that same time, as pandemonium gripped the station, there were reports that a second attacker was still on the loose. A security guard named Ziad shot Eritrean asylum seeker Haptom Zarhum, 29, badly wounding him. Lying incapacitated on the floor, Zarhum was then set upon by a mob that mistook him for a terrorist and beat him mercilessly. Later that night he was ruled dead of his injuries, which days later police said an autopsy revealed was caused by the shooting.

Last week, four suspects in the beating of Zarhum were arrested, including two Israel Prison Service employees.