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Arab Israeli Terrorist Kills One, Wounds Five in Multi-Site Shooting Attack Across Central Israel

Debbie Weiss

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Israeli emergency personnel work at the scene of what Israeli police say was a series of shooting attacks in central Israel, June 7, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

An Arab Israeli terrorist killed a 35-year-old man and wounded five others in a rolling shooting attack across several central Israeli communities on Sunday before security forces shot him dead and police arrested another man suspected of helping him, Israeli authorities and first responders said.

The attacker identified by security officials, Omar Yassin, 21, opened fire near Kochav Yair, Tzur Yitzhak, and Tzur Natan, a cluster of communities north of Tel Aviv and close to the security barrier separating Israel from the West Bank. Police and the military said he used a makeshift “Carlo” submachine gun and drove a vehicle with Israeli plates that was on the road illegally.

Emergency medics reported six casualties across three shooting scenes: a man of about 35 who was fatally wounded on the road near Tzur Natan. Another man in his 40s, a reservist who was also the community’s security coordinator, was seriously hurt at the same location. A third man was seriously wounded at a gas station near Kochav Yair, and three people were listed in moderate condition, including a second man at the gas station and a 31-year-old man and 61-year-old woman shot at the entrance to Tzur Yitzhak. 

The victim was named as Haim Kalomiti, 55, a Tzur Natan resident and regional defense reservist in the Ephraim Regional Brigade.

A picture of Haim Kalomiti.

As the attack unfolded, sirens sounded in nearby communities warning residents of a possible terrorist infiltration. People in Tzur Natan and Tzur Yitzhak were instructed to lock themselves inside their homes while police, soldiers, and local security teams searched the area

The terrorist then drove toward Sal’it, an Israeli community in the West Bank, and fired at the entrance. The community’s security coordinator returned fire, and the attacker fled. No injuries were reported there. 

Security forces later caught up with the attacker in his hometown of Taibeh nearby and shot him dead. Police said they recovered the vehicle and weapon used in the attack. The Israel Defense Forces reported troops were deployed to the scenes of the shootings and nearby areas, while forces also carried out searches and imposed closures around several Palestinian villages near the attack zone.

Police initially said the terrorist appeared to have acted alone, but later announced the arrest of a second suspect, a man in his 20s from the same city as the attacker. According to police, officers received intelligence that the man had allegedly admitted involvement in the attack while looking for help hiding from law enforcement. Police said he tried to stab detectives with a broken glass bottle during the arrest and was subdued without any officers being wounded.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security assessment after the attack.

“This morning, a heinous terrorist went out, reached Kochav Yair, and unfortunately managed, before being eliminated, to murder an Israeli citizen and injure others,” Netanyahu said, praising the officers who stopped the attacker.

President Isaac Herzog said he was “shocked by the horrific terror attack,” and offered condolences to the family of the murdered man and prayers for the wounded.

The attack drew immediate political response in Israel, particularly because the terrorist was an Arab Israeli citizen. Police Commissioner Danny Levy said the attacker had a criminal record but was not known to the security establishment as a terror suspect. Israeli media reported that security forces carried out raids in Taibeh, an Arab Israeli town, as part of the investigation.

Kochav Yair council head Hila Hakmon said the attack underscored the demands of Israeli communities along the security barrier for more funding since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.

“Unfortunately, the changes in the security elements over the past two years are relatively marginal,” she told Army Radio. “We got some kind of funding from the army, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed here, and the proof is what happened today.”

Hamas praised the shooting but did not claim responsibility. The terrorist group described the attack as a response to Israel’s “crimes of Judaization, extrajudicial killings, settlement expansion and raids,” in Gaza and the West Bank, according to Israeli reports.

The attack came amid heightened Israeli security concerns along the security barrier and in mixed Arab-Jewish areas inside Israel, where police have also been contending for years with widespread illegal weapons tied to organized crime.

Israeli officials said the investigation was continuing, including whether the arrested suspect had an operational role in the attack or helped the terrorist after the shootings began.

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