Woman killed in Kafr Manda grenade attack named as Lina Qassem Zidan

Update, 14 November, 18:07 Israel time

The woman killed in the Kafr Manda grenade attack has been named as Lina Qassem Zidan, a resident of Daliyat al-Karmel, N12 reporter Or Ravid said. The Times of Israel reported, citing police and Magen David Adom, that the grenade went off inside a pastry shop where she was buying goods. She was taken to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa in critical condition and died later. Her husband was among the three injured; two of the wounded were in moderate condition and one was lightly hurt, the paper said.

Ynet reported that she is the 200th person killed in Arab society in Israel this year, a figure The Times of Israel also gave. Ynet said the assessment is that the attackers could not find the person they were looking for and threw the grenade at a restaurant belonging to a relative of that person, and that they also ran over her husband. Witnesses told Ynet they thought a missile had exploded.

Reports differ on her age and on the premises. Ynet gave her age as 51, The Times of Israel described her as a woman in her fifties, and an earlier Times of Israel live update citing Hebrew media said 60. Outlets variously called the target a pastry shop, a restaurant and, in Haaretz, a candy store.

The story as first reported

Israel Police have arrested three suspects in connection with a grenade attack in Kafr Manda, a town in northern Israel, on November 14, 2026. The arrests were first announced by police and carried within minutes of each other by the Hebrew news channels Ynet and N12.

According to police statements cited by The Times of Israel, the grenade killed a woman and wounded three other people. Officers also took possession of the vehicle they believe was used to carry out the attack. Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levy travelled to the town to be briefed on the investigation, the paper reported, and a police photograph showed him there with officers.

What the reports say about the attack

The three outlets agree on the central fact: police have three people in custody over the grenade incident. They differ in how much detail they give. The Ynet alert was a single line confirming the arrests and the location. N12, in an update attributed to its reporter Or Ravid, described the weapon as a fragmentation grenade and said it was thrown at a business in the town. N12 also reported that police found the car suspected of being used in the offence and that it had been hidden when they located it.

The Times of Israel described the same vehicle as having been seized by police, and it was the only one of the three reports to give casualty figures. Neither Ynet nor N12 mentioned the woman who was killed or the three people who were injured in their initial updates, so those figures rest on the police account as relayed by The Times of Israel.

None of the reports names the suspects, gives their ages, or says where they were detained. None identifies the woman who died or describes the condition of the injured.

Where Kafr Manda is

Kafr Manda is an Arab town in the Galilee, the hilly region of northern Israel that is home to a large share of the country's Arab citizens. It is a local council rather than a city, and like many Arab communities in the north it is mostly residential, with small businesses lining its main roads.

Who is leading the response

Israel Police is the national police force, responsible for criminal investigations across the country, including in Arab towns, which generally do not have their own municipal police. The commissioner is its most senior officer, appointed by the government and answerable to the minister responsible for policing. A visit by the commissioner to the scene of an incident on the same day it occurs signals that the force's leadership is following the case directly. The Times of Israel said Levy was there to receive an assessment of the investigation; it did not report any statement from him.

How this fits a wider pattern

Grenades and other explosives thrown at homes, cars and shops have become a recurring feature of violent crime in Arab towns in Israel. Such attacks are often linked by police to disputes between criminal organisations, protection rackets aimed at business owners, and feuds between families. Arab political leaders and civil society groups have long accused the state of failing to curb this violence, and the issue regularly prompts debate in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, over police resources and the conduct of investigations in Arab communities.

Police have not said whether they believe this attack belongs to any of these categories. The detail in the N12 report that the target was a business is the only indication in the material of what the attackers were aiming at, and none of the outlets reported a motive.

What happens next in an Israeli criminal case

In Israel, suspects who are arrested are usually brought before a magistrate's court within a short period, where police can ask for their detention to be extended while the investigation continues. Courts frequently issue gag orders in the early stages of serious cases, restricting what can be published about suspects and evidence. None of the reports mentions a court hearing or a gag order in this case.

What the reports do not say

• Police have not released the identities of the suspects or the woman who was killed, and no family statement has been reported.
• No motive has been given, and police have not said whether the business owner was the intended target.
• The condition of the three people injured has not been reported.
• It is not yet known whether the suspects will be brought before a court for a detention hearing, or whether further arrests are expected.
• The casualty figures appear in only one of the three reports.