Herzliya terrorist had ‘worked as an informant for Israeli intelligence’

The Shin Bet security service has said that the perpetrator of Friday's terror attack in central Israel, Ibrahim Shalhob, was a former informant who worked for Israel's defence establishment to prevent terrorist attacks.

The 28-year-old terrorist from Tulkarem in the West Bank shouted “Allahu Akbar” and then stabbed and mortally wounded a woman near the nursing home where she lived on Kedoshi Hashoah Street in Herzliya on Friday morning.

Magen David Adom emergency personnel treated the victim, Ludmila Lipovsky, 83, and she was evacuated in critical condition to Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital), where doctors pronounced her death.

Security guards from the Israel Postal Company’s Brink’s courier unit shot the lone attacker, who was then arrested by police.

According to initial reports, he was within the Green Line illegally and had previously served time in an Israeli prison for a security offense. His condition is described as serious.

The terrorist, Shalhob, had been placed under administrative detention three times, most recently from June 2023-June 2024.

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said the suspect is “a former security service informant, who was involved in thwarting terrorist infrastructures [and] was exposed and transferred for rehabilitation in Israel.

"The suspect was arrested at the scene and will be transferred for Shin Bet interrogation to continue investigating the circumstances of the attack.”

Since October 7, 43 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank.

Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.