Police have arrested three suspects in a hit-and-run accident Sunday morning
that took the life of Lior Farhi on the 505 highway in the West
Bank.
Police have obtained a gag order on the case, but Ch.- Insp. Dudi
Asraf, spokesman for the Judea and Samaria police district, confirmed that one
of the suspects, a Kafr Kasim resident, owns the car involved in the crash.
Shortly after the accident, the Kafr Kasim resident went to the Rosh Ha’ayin
police station to report his car stolen, and was promptly arrested and held for
questioning.
The two other suspects are Israeli Arabs from Jaffa, who
were arrested in the city several hours after the crash.
Asraf confirmed
that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has been assisting in the
investigation of the accident, which they do not believe was a terrorist attack
or carried out for nationalistic motives.
The 50-year-old Farhi worked as
a security officer in the western Samaria settlement of Sha’arei Tikva. On
Sunday morning he and another Israeli were filming an attempt to sneak
Palestinian workers into an Israeli car near the Green Line, so they could work
illegally in Israel.
The alleged smugglers spotted Farhi and his
companion.
Farhi then reportedly stood in the highway and tried to stop
the car but was run over, Asraf said.
Paramedics evacuated Farhi, but he
died in an ambulance on the way to the Rabin Medical Center- Beilinson Campus in
Petah Tikva.
Shortly thereafter the car was found abandoned on the side
of the road near the Oranit interchange, and police and Shin Bet investigators
began tracing it to the suspects, who were arrested later in the day.
As
of Sunday night, the investigation was ongoing and police were checking possible
additional suspects.