21-Jan-15: Knife-wielding attacker in central Tel Aviv

The bus and the emergency service
vehicles are on the right [Image Source: Via
Twitter]

Too soon to have all the details, but the reports on Israeli news bulletins during this morning's (Wednesday) rush hour are of a terrorist stabbing attack on a busy city bus traveling Tel Aviv's Route 5 [correction: it was probably Route 40 from Bat Yam to Tel Aviv's northern suburbs] right in the middle of the country's business center.

Times of Israel says a man, not yet identified,

pulled out a knife and started stabbing passengers... leaving at least 10 injured... Most of the victims were lightly injured, but there were reports of at least two in serious condition.

On radio, it's reported he stabbed the driver first, but this did not prevent him from opening the doors to allow passengers to get out.

Other numbers of victims are being reported, and the fact that the stabber ran, was shot but not killed, and is now bound and in the hands of interrogators. There are photos of him handcuffed and lying in mud.

Two of the terrorist's stabbing victims, according to Ynet, are critically injured.

The attacker, armed with a concealed knife and lunging at commuters on their way to work, is already the recipient of praise from an organization that cultivates such outrages: Hamas, while the victims are still bleeding in the street, calls it "a heroic and courageous act".

UPDATE 9:25 am Larger number of casualties, says Haaretz: 16 injured, of whom 6 "in serious condition". (Ynet at 10:30 this morning says "13 stabbed, four badly hurt".) If the injured were cartoonists, the editors of the world's major news outlets might be having an easier time referring to them as victims of terror and referring to the attacker, with no need for the use of doubt-sowing apostrophes, as a terrorist. It's nauseating to see how some of the most influential names in news are doing gymnastics to avoid those plain terms. Their agenda ought to be troubling us and their consumers/readers.

UPDATE Thursday January 22: From Times of Israel -

Hamza Matrouk, 23, of Tulkarem, told Shin Bet interrogators that he embarked on the stabbing spree in retaliation for Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer and the recent unrest on the Temple Mount. He admitted that he was motivated by watching radical Islamic television programs, and spoke of “reaching paradise.” Israeli security forces on Thursday raided three houses belonging to friends and relatives of Matrouk.