The town of Hura in Israel’s southern region. Photo: Romayan/Wikimedia

Officials from the Bedouin town of Hura, the home of a terrorist who murdered four people in Beersheba on Tuesday, condemned his deed and distanced it from their community, which sees the attack as a “black stain,” Israeli news site Walla reported.

Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Qi’an, 34, once a high school teacher, previously served a four-year prison sentence for attempting to join the Islamic State terrorist group. He was released in 2019 and shot dead by an armed civilian during Tuesday’s killing spree.

Ishaq Abu al-Qi’an, the vice-chair of Hura’s municipal council, said on Wednesday that all residents of the town deplore the attack.

“On the street and in every house, and every woman and every child, unequivocally condemn this awful incident,” he said. “It is our obligation to condemn terrible acts like these.”

“In Hura, we are angry about the incident and feel the pain of the families of the murdered,” he asserted. “I say to the residents of Beersheba that they can live in quiet and sleep soundly. Beersheba is the home of us all.”

“This is the act of a single person,” he emphasized, and all people have “to continue living together.”

Nafez Abu al-Qi’an, the council’s security chief and a distant relative of the terrorist, called it “a black day for the family.”

“I was in shock when I heard about the attack,” he said, adding that he felt it was a “lone wolf” incident.

“In the short term, it will affect relations between [the Arab and Jewish] sectors, but in the long term we all have to work together, Jews and Bedouins, so our relations will return to being good,” Nafez said.