Bedouin Israeli arrested for aiding Kiryat Gat terrorist

Zuhair al-Huzayal from Rahat allegedly drove Muhammad Tarada to town where he stabbed 4 people, including 13-year-old

By Judah Ari Gross and ToI Staff 27 November 2015, 5:08 pm

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Security personnel seen outside an apartment building in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat into which a Palestinian man who stabbed an IDF soldier and grabbed his gun escaped, in an attack carried out on October 7, 2015. (FLASH90)

A resident of the Bedouin town of Rahat was arrested Thursday night by police and security forces on suspicion that he helped a terrorist carry out a stabbing attack in southern Israel last Saturday.

Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court on Friday extended the remand of the suspect, named as 37-year-old Zuhair al-Huzayal, the Haaretz daily reported.

Huzayal is alleged to have driven the attacker from the Hebron area of the West Bank into Israel. The arrest marks the second time a Bedouin has been implicated in involvement in a terror attack.

Three other people — the stabber and two other alleged accomplices — have already been arrested. Huzayal is also suspected of other instances of driving Palestinians with no entry permit into Israel.

Four people were wounded in the November 21 stabbing attack in Kiryat Gat, including a 13-year-old girl. The terrorist, identified as 18-year-old Muhammad Tarada, was caught by police after a five-hour manhunt.

A picture of a knife allegedly used by Muhammad a-Tarada in a stabbing terror attack on Saturday evening, November 21 2015. Four people were wounded in the attack in the southern Israel city of Kiryat Gat. (Israel Police) — A picture of a knife allegedly used by Muhammad Tarada in a stabbing terror attack in Kiryat Gat on November 21, 2015. (Israel Police)

According to the Shin Bet security service, Tarada is from a Palestinian village west of Hebron. He had no arrest history and was not known to Israeli security officials, authorities said.

Tarada was working in Israel illegally when he carried out the attack. Police said he was caught hiding in the yard outside a private residence in the city with the weapon still in his possession.

He was said to have been injured when he was hit by a car while fleeing. He was arrested and transferred to the Shin Bet for interrogation, police said. Police also published a picture of the knife allegedly used in the attack.

The two other Palestinians detained are also from the same village, and were also staying in Israel without documentation. The two were named as Fares Tarada and Rafat Tarada.

On October 18, Bedouin Israeli Muhanad Alukabi carried out a terror attack in the Beersheba central bus station. IDF soldier Omri Levi, aged 19, and Eritrean asylum seeker Haftom Zarhom, were killed in the attack. Zarhom died from bullet wounds sustained after he was severely beaten and shot by an angry mob who mistook him for the attacker.