6 indicted over Kiryat Ata killing of mistakenly identified young father

Three relatives from Ramle charged with murder, others accused of assisting the crime; suspects believed victim was a Shfaram resident involved in an ongoing dispute

By ToI Staff 19 December 2022, 4:56 pm

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Paramedics at the scene of a shooting in Kiryat Ata, October 31, 2022. (Magen David Adom)

Six people were indicted on Monday for their roles in the murder earlier this year of a man who was the victim of mistaken identity.

In late October, Mor Twizer, 29, a resident of Kiryat Motzkin and a married father of a 3-year-old daughter, was shot several times from a passing car at point-blank range in Kiryat Ata while he was riding a motorcycle. He died of his wounds three days later at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.

While investigating the murder, police realized that Twizer had not been the intended target and that the killers had mistaken him for somebody else.

The six individuals indicted Monday were named Zakariya Abu Ghanem, Cnaan Abu Ghanem and Savri Abu Ghanem of Ramle, who are all related, as well as Ibrahim Al-Rakh of Kiryat Ata, and two girlfriends of some of the men involved: Moran Attiya Dimri and Naomi Patau.

The Abu Ghanems were charged with aggravated murder, attempted murder and weapons crimes, while Al-Rakh was charged with aiding and abetting murder, and Dimri and Patau were indicted on charges of assisting the others after the fact and interfering in an investigation.

According to the indictment, the suspects had plotted to harm a resident of Shfaram due to a dispute he was having with Dimri, the girlfriend of Zakariya Abu Ghanem. The two men had agreed to meet in Kiryat Ata, and all three Abu Ghanems arrived at the site on October 31 and mistakenly identified Twizer as the man from Shfaram.

One of them opened fire at Twizer from inside the car, shooting him several times, including in the head, and critically wounding him.

Police initially believed the incident to be criminally motivated. However, an initial investigation found no evidence linking Twizer to the underworld, which led investigators to believe that it was either a terror attack or a case of mistaken identity.

Twizer’s wife, Ravit, arrived at the courthouse on Monday and expressed her grief.

“My daughter cries ‘Where is daddy,'” she said, according to the Walla news site. “Next week is her fourth birthday. What will I do without him? This country has lost its way — where is the law and order?”