Rabat – A Moroccan man who stabbed four people in Tel Aviv on Tuesday passed two Israeli security checks before the attack, officials have admitted.
Abdel Aziz Kadi, 30, was shot dead by civilians after he stabbed four Israelis in central Tel Aviv. He had entered Israel days earlier on a tourist visa, despite being flagged by airport border officers.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel described the incident as “grave,” saying: “The border inspectors identified the risk and tried to prevent him from entering. Sadly, security officials allowed him in.”
Kadi held permanent residency in the US, and had applied for an Israeli visa abroad. He underwent strict background checks during the process. When he landed at Ben Gurion Airport on January 18, border officers initially refused him entry. But after a second interrogation by Shin Bet security agents, he was cleared to enter.
Shin Bet confirmed their officers conducted “additional checks” and found no reason to block Kadi.
Police say Kadi acted alone. Israeli media revealed he carried an American residency card and a border control ticket, showing he was in the country legally.
Arbel has called for an urgent investigation. “We must examine this failure to make sure such a tragedy doesn’t happen again,” he said.
Last Tuesday, a stabbing spree in Tel Aviv left four people injured in the city’s Nahalat Binyamin neighbourhood.
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Before the violence, CCTV footage shows Kadi stopping at a pizza shop where he appeared calm and spoke in English with an Arabic accent.
The victims, aged between 24 and 59, were rushed to the hospital, but none of their injuries were life-threatening. Israeli officials are treating the incident as a terror attack.
The attack ended when an off-duty IOF officer intervened. Civilians then shot Kadi, killing him on the spot.
Kadi’s act of violence comes amid rising tensions in the region, with the Israeli Occupation Forces carrying out a major military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, killing nine Palestinians.
The militant group Hamas praised Kadi as a “martyr,” further intensifying the situation.
