Petah Tikva knife attacker given 17 years in plea bargain

25-year-old Tamer Yunes Ahmed Varidat of Dahariya, will also be required to pay compensation to his victims.

By BEN HARTMAN
Updated: MARCH 16, 2016 00:41
Knife [Illustrative] (photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Knife [Illustrative]
(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
A Palestinian man who carried out a stabbing attack in Petah Tikva five months ago was convicted of attempted murder in a plea bargain on Tuesday and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Tamer Yunes Ahmed Varidat, 25, of Dahariya, will also be required to pay compensation to his victims, one of whom prosecutors at the Lod District Court said is working on a victim impact statement about the attack.
The attack happened on October 7, on the same day that nearly a dozen Israelis were wounded in a wave of attacks across the country.
The attack in Petah Tikva was the first in the Gush Dan region during the so-called stabbing intifada.
Varidat was riding on a bus on Jabotinsky Street – one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares – when he stepped off outside the city’s main mall and stabbed and badly wounded an Israeli man at the bus stop.
Varidat’s knife snapped off at the handle after he plunged it into his 25-year-old victim, preventing him from using it to attack more victims. Surveillance camera footage of the attack showed him standing with the bladeless handle and pacing back and forth before he was overpowered by bystanders, who held him until police arrived.
Before the attack Varidat had no prior arrests or security record and was not known to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), fitting the profile of most of the “lone wolf” attackers of the ongoing terrorist violence.


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