Speaking in a radio interview, a top Beersheva police official said that two officers, along with several passerby, had identified two suspicious individuals in the Beersheva bus station on Sunday afternoon. Police said that the three individuals – the two identified originally, along with a third person – had been arrested, based on their suspicious behavior. A subsequent search of the large backpacks they were carrying did not yield any explosives or weapons. The three suspects, however, turned out to be illegal Arabs who were apparently from Palestinian Authority controlled areas, residing in Israel illegally.
Although the incident could be said to qualify as a false alarm, the official said, police would prefer to err on the side of caution. The bus and train station, both of which had been closed and cleared of people, were set to reopen later Sunday afternoon.