An Israeli woman was injured in a stabbing attack, Saturday, in a predominantly Bedouin city located in the Negev desert region, Israeli police said.An Israeli police spokesperson said that a Jewish Israeli woman in her sixties was stabbed at a market, in the town of Rahat, central Israel.
The suspected attacker — believed to be a woman — fled the scene, they added, according to Ma’an, saying that Israeli forces were searching the area and still investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The spokesperson also said that Israeli security forces were investigating the attack as being ‘nationalistically motivated.’
The Israeli woman was reportedly taken to a hospital in Beersheba, and that she was in moderate to serious condition.
Rahat is the largest Bedouin settlement in Israel and occupied Palestinian territories, and the only one to be recognized as a city by Israeli authorities.
Bedouins in Israel live mainly in 45 unrecognized villages scattered primarily in the region between Beersheba and Arad. They are the remnants of the Bedouin population which lived across the Negev desert until 1948, when 90 percent were expelled by Israel and the remainder confined to a closed reservation.
The majority of Bedouins in Israel and the West Bank live a relatively settled but, still, semi-nomadic lifestyle, residing in permanent villages, but pasturing livestock in adjacent areas.
Israeli restrictions on movement and demolition policies have severely impacted Bedouins’ traditional lifestyle and quality of life.
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