Hamburg Supermarket Knife Attacker Was Palestinian Islamist ‘But Not a Jihadist’, Say Police

The man who killed one and injured several during a knife attack at a supermarket in Hamburg, has been identified as a Palestinian immigrant and a known Islamist.

Hamburg’s Interior Minister Andy Grote said that the man, who was captured and arrested after the attack, was known to authorities.

“He was known as an Islamist but not a jihadist,” he stated.

The 26-year-old attacker, identified as Ahmad A, is a Palestinian failed asylum seeker born in the United Arab Emirates, registered on a database of known Islamists, Grote confirmed on Saturday.

The attacker arrived in Germany in 2015 but could not be deported as he held no identification papers, and had mental health issues.

He was known to be undergoing radicalisation, but authorities who were monitoring him didn’t consider him to be an Islamist militant.

The attack, which took place in the Barmbeck neighbourhood of Hamburg, resulted in the death of a 50-year-old man, and six other people being injured.

On Friday July 28th, ‘Ahmad A’ entered Edeka, Germany’s largest supermarket chain, and grabbed a kitchen knife from the shelf reports German paper Die Welt.

“He ripped off the packaging and then suddenly brutally attacked the 50-year-old man, who later died,” said police spokeswoman Kathrin Hennings.

An alleged witness claimed that the man shouted ‘Allahu Akbar!’ after stabbing his victims. He is thought to have been working alone.

This is not the first attack to have taken place in Germany recently. Last year in December, 12 lost their lives after a lorry ploughed into a Christmas market in Berlin, while in July, nine people were killed by a German Iranian citizen in a German shopping centre. A few days earlier, an axe-wielding Afghan refugee, went on a rampage at the Wurzburg train station, injuring four people before he was shot dead by police.

On Saturday, July 29 an Iraqi migrant opened fire in a German nightclub in Kostanz, killing one person and wounding four others. The attacker was shot dead by police. It is not yet known what his motives were.

The Hamburg attack recalls another similar incident in Sweden in 2015, when another failed asylum seeker — this time an Eritrean — grabbed a knife in a shop and killed. 36-year-old Abraham Ukbagabir told the court he had gone directly to an IKEA store from the migration office after being told he would be deported, and grabbed a knife from the kitchen display area and murdered two Swedes in revenge for the government decision.