Shira Chaya Suslik: Terror attack as young Israeli police officer shot dead in Beersheba

A young police officer has been shot and killed in a reported terrorist attack that left many people wounded at a bus station in southern Israel.

Authorities believe the shooting that led to the officers’ death and a further 10 people being seriously injured was a terror attack on the eve of the October 7 anniversary of the music festival massacre.

The gunman was shot dead at the scene after what police described as a “suspected terror at the city of Beersheba’s central bus station.

The BBC reports the victim has been named as Shira Chaya Suslik, 19, a sergeant from Israel’s border police.

Israel’s ambulance service said medics are treating those wounded with most suffering gunshot wounds.

One of the injured is in a “moderate to serious” condition and four others are in a “moderate condition”, the ambulance service said.

They have been taken to the nearby Soroka Hospital.

Police said a preliminary investigation showed the gunman was “eliminated in a few seconds by the security forces” who were there.

Shortly after the attack, Israel’s Transport Minister Miri Regev called for the families of “terrorists” to be deported from the country.

“The time has come for a deterrent punishment to prevent the attacks on Israeli territory,” she wrote on X.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid described the attack as “severe and despicable”, writing on X “We must act hard against terrorism”.

Last week, seven people were killed in a shooting and knife attack in Tel Aviv after a gunman opened fire at members of the public in the Jaffa area.

Israeli authorities have said they are on high alert across the country ahead of the first anniversary of Hamas’s assault on southern Israel on 7 October last year, which triggered the current Gaza war.