Woman fatally stabbed in Times Square; attacker shot dead by police

A woman was stabbed to death and a man was wounded in Times Square in Manhattan, New York, before police shot the attacker, who later died. The Jerusalem Post reported that the stabbing left a woman dead and that the attacker died following the response by the New York Police Department (NYPD). A Reuters photograph published with that report shows an NYPD officer standing guard at the scene of what the caption describes as an officer-involved shooting in Times Square on August 31, 2026.

Ynet reported that the assailant, whom it described as mentally ill and armed with kitchen knives, stabbed two people in the central Manhattan square close to a police station, and was shot by officers. According to that report, one of the victims was pronounced dead a short time later, while a man was left in serious condition. Ynet also reported that police described the incident as a robbery attempt that went wrong, and that the woman shouted that she would rather kill everyone present.

What the accounts say about those involved

The details in the available reports do not fully match. News.co.il reported that a woman aged 42 pulled out two knives overnight, stabbed a man aged 68, whose condition it described as stable, and then fatally stabbed a woman aged 32. The Telegram channel Abu Ali Express, which publishes security and Arab-affairs reporting in Hebrew, gave the assailant's age as 49 and said she had killed one woman and seriously wounded another person.

The two Hebrew-language channels therefore differ on the attacker's age, and the descriptions of the surviving victim's condition differ as well: stable in one account, serious in the others. None of the reports names any of the people involved. We are not resolving these discrepancies here, because the material does not allow it.

How the police response is described

Abu Ali Express reported that a full complement of officers spent several minutes trying to negotiate with the woman as she brandished knives at them. According to that account, officers first fired a Taser, an electric stun weapon intended to incapacitate a person without lethal force, and when this did not stop her from advancing they fired live rounds. She died of her wounds in hospital, the same report said.

The Jerusalem Post's framing, that the attacker died after the NYPD response, is consistent with a death that followed the shooting rather than occurring at the scene. Ynet's account described her as having been shot dead by officers. The reports do not state how many officers fired, or how many shots were fired.

Why Times Square matters here

Times Square sits at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan and is among the most heavily trafficked public spaces in the United States, drawing tourists, theatregoers and commuters at all hours. It is also one of the most heavily policed. Ynet noted that the attack took place near a police station; the NYPD maintains a dedicated presence in the area, which is part of why officers were on the scene within minutes of the stabbing.

For readers outside the United States, the term "officer-involved shooting", used in the Reuters caption carried by The Jerusalem Post, is standard American police and media language for an incident in which police discharge a firearm. In New York, such incidents are routinely reviewed by internal police oversight bodies and by prosecutors, though none of the reports here describes any investigation that has been opened.

Why Israeli outlets covered a New York stabbing

Israeli news organisations report closely on New York, home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world and a city with dense family, business and travel ties to Israel. Violent incidents in central Manhattan are covered in Israel much as they would be in a domestic story. Nothing in the reports links this attack to any nationalist, political or antisemitic motive; the only motive mentioned is the police characterisation cited by Ynet of a robbery attempt that failed, alongside descriptions of the assailant as mentally ill.

What the reports do not say

The available material leaves a great deal open. It does not name the woman who was killed, the man who was wounded or the assailant. It does not give the exact time of the attack beyond describing it as overnight, nor the precise location within Times Square. It does not say whether the assailant had a criminal record or a documented history of mental illness beyond the descriptions given, nor how the conclusion of a failed robbery was reached.

There is no direct quotation from a named NYPD official in the material, and the wording attributed to the assailant appears in a single report. It is also unclear whether the surviving victim's condition is stable or serious, and the attacker's age is given differently by two outlets. Readers should treat the single-sourced elements as provisional until New York authorities publish their own account.