The 19-year-old Israeli stabbed to death at a bus station in an apparent terror attack in Arad on Thursday night was an IDF soldier, identified as Ron Yitzhak Kokia from Tel Aviv. He was posthumously promoted to sergeant.

Kokia served in the Nahal Brigade, an infantry unit whose home base is located just outside Arad. His funeral is set for Sunday afternoon in Tel Aviv.

Police said the incident was most likely a terror attack, and that the suspect(s) was still on the loose. More than 250 police officers and soldiers were part of the search on Friday morning. Police were also investigating the possibility that the soldier’s service rifle was stolen.

At approximately 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, medics received a call about a young man who was stabbed and seriously wounded at a bus stop near Arad’s shopping mall.

According to eyewitnesses, the wounded soldier tried asking for help from a car passing by, but collapsed in front of the vehicle.

When medics arrived at the scene, they found him in a critical condition, unconscious and without a pulse. Efforts to rescusitate the soldier were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead before reaching the hospital.

According to Arad Mayor Nissan Ben-Hemo, “The working assumption is that this was a terror attack, but it still has yet to be determined unequivocally.”

Baruch Da’yan HaEmes

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)