Palestinian indicted for attempted murder, terror for Afula stabbing

Police and the Shin Bet released the findings of a joint investigation into the incident, which occurred on June 11.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
Updated: JUNE 29, 2018 04:36
Scene after one woman wounded, Palestinian assailant arrested in Afula stabbing attack, June 11, 2018 (Courtesy Israel Police)
The Northern District prosecutor filed an indictment on Thursday for attempted murder and terrorism against a Palestinian who stabbed and wounded 18-year-old Shuva Malka in Afula earlier this month.
Malka has since recovered.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said that Nur al-Din Shinawi, a Jenin resident in his 20s, confessed to the attack.
The indictment accused Shinawi of causing serious injury under grave circumstances of a terrorist nature, preparation for an act of terrorism, illegal entry into Israel and possession of a knife for illegal purposes.
The prosecutors also filed a request to keep the defendant in custody until the end of the legal proceedings.
Police and the Shin Bet released the findings of a joint investigation into the incident, which occurred on June 11.
That day, at around 11:50 AM, the police was notified that a young woman had collapsed near an Aroma cafe in Afula and had several stab wounds on her body.
Large police forces, Border Police fighters and a police helicopter were dispatched to the scene and began searching and deploying checkpoints in an attempt to locate suspects.
A preliminary investigation by police investigators revealed that the victim, a religious girl from Migdal Haemek, had told several people nearby that she had been stabbed by a suspect who appeared to be Arab, before she collapsed.
About half an hour after the incident, a civilian notified police that he had noticed a young man walking suspiciously near a gas station and getting into a taxi. Police followed the taxi and saw the suspect getting out of the taxi and running toward houses near Jerusalem Street. They called for him to stop but he turned toward them with a box cutter knife in his hand, and the police neutralized and arrested him.
The investigation found that the suspect entered Israel in February while on a tour and remained without legal permits while he was working as a plasterer in Upper Nazareth and Iksal.
According to investigators, he decided to carry out a terror attack in Israel against a soldier or religious civilian and for this purpose equipped himself with two knives.
Investigators also found that at the time of the incident, the defendant had been on his way home to Jenin when he noticed the victim, who appeared to be an observant Jew, who he described as a “settler,” standing at the bus stop and decided that this was his opportunity to carry out the attack he had planned.
He waited for the victim to be alone before coming up behind her and stabbing her nine times in the upper part of her body after which he fled the scene, believing he had killed her.
According to the investigators, when the defendant noticed that police were chasing him, he planned to kill one of the policemen with the other knife, but before he could, he was neutralized by the police and arrested.
The defendant told investigators that the trigger for the attack was a security check that his mother underwent by police wearing skull caps at the entrance to the Temple Mount area during the Ramadan holiday in 2017, after which his hatred of religious Jews grew.


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