1989 Purim stabbing attack | |
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Location | Tel Aviv |
Date | 21 March 1989 |
Attack type | Stabbing attack |
Weapons | knife |
Deaths | 2 Israeli civilians |
Injured | 1 Israeli civilian |
Perpetrator | Lone Arab assailant (Muhammad Zakut) |
The 1989 Purim stabbing attack was the random stabbing of Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv, Israel on the Jewish holiday of Purim on March 21, 1989. The attacker was Muhammad Zakut, an Arab construction worker. Two Israelis were murdered and one severely injured in the attack.
Muhammad Zakut stabbed three Israeli with a commando knife as he shouted "God is great." One of the victims, Kurt Moshe Schallinger, 73, was killed as he left his car on a Tel Aviv street full of children in costume, celebrating the holiday of Purim. [1]Zakut said his goal was to "stab in the neck the first Israeli his eyes fell on." He murdered two Israelis and severely injured a third in the back of his head and his spinal cord before being caught.[2]One of the victims was an elderly scientist on his way home from delivering mishloah manot on the Jewish holiday of Purim. The other was the head of the Environment Association in Tel Aviv.[3]
Zakut received a life sentence, but on 18 October 2011, he was released to Gaza as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.[4]
Prominent terrorist attacks against Israelis in the history of the Arab–Israeli conflict – the 1980s | |
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1980 |
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1982 | |
1983 |
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1984 |
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1985 |
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1987 |
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1988 |
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1989 |
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Attacks launched from the Gaza Strip Attacks launched from Lebanon Attacks launched from Egypt ‡ indicates the terrorist attack which caused the greatest amount of Israeli casualties during the 1980s List of projectile attacks from Lebanon on Israel and the Golan Heights 1970s 1990s |