Cab company owner, 2 drivers charged with ferrying gunmen to deadly Jaffa terror attack
Indictment reveals that two terrorists had initially considered attacking sports stadium, before carrying out shooting at light rail station in south Tel Aviv, killing 7 civilians
The owner of a taxi company and two taxi drivers were indicted on Sunday for driving into Israel the perpetrators of the October 1 terror attack in Jaffa, in what the State Attorney’s Office described as a precedent.
The indictments also revealed new details of the planned attack, including that the terrorists — who killed seven civilians at a light rail station — had considered attacking a nearby sports stadium.
In the stabbing and shooting attack, Mohammad Mesek, 19, and Ahmed Himouni, 25, from Hebron in the West Bank, murdered seven people and injured 11. Mesek was killed at the scene and Himouni was seriously injured. Hamas later claimed responsibility for the attack — one of the worst in years.
The three individuals indicted on Sunday are accused of driving the terrorists, who they knew didn’t have entry permits into Israel, across the Green Line, from East Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. The indictment is on charges of causing death by negligence and causing death by recklessness.
According to the indictment, the taxi company had started up a business illegally ferrying Palestinians from the West Bank into Israel who did not have permits to enter. On the day of the attack in Jaffa, the indictment said, the company’s owner received a request to take 13 Palestinians without entry permits into Israel, including the two terrorists.
The owner, who knew the individuals did not have entry permits, instructed one of his drivers to take the business, when they both knew that the Palestinians’ “entry into Israel was forbidden and in order to make money, while taking an unreasonable risk that the company [might be] giving taxi services to terrorists,” the State Attorney’s Office wrote in the indictment.
According to the indictment, the driver told the Palestinians who got into his taxi to turn off their cell phones and to draw the curtains in the rear windows of the vehicle. The terrorists were said to have worn black clothes — unlike the other Palestinians who were being transported — and had two backpacks: one holding a dismantled M-16 assault rifle, and another holding knives and ammunition.
After crossing into Israel, the first driver had some of his passengers, including the two terrorists, change to the second driver’s taxi, “because of his fear of police inspection,” the indictment said. It noted that the second driver was not an employee of the company, but worked in cooperation with it.
According to the indictment, the terrorists had originally planned to carry out their attack at a crowded venue, such as a sports stadium. While passing by the Bloomfield stadium, one of the terrorists asked the driver if there was a game on that evening, ostensibly to see if he could carry out a mass terror attack at the venue. There was no game being played that night.
Before carrying out the attack, the terrorists entered Jaffa’s Al-Nuzha Mosque, stashed their bags in the mosque’s bathroom, and threatened worshippers not to leave.
Then they boarded the Tel Aviv light rail, attacking civilians on board, before getting off and continuing on foot and shooting and stabbing people on Jerusalem Street in the city.
The seven civilians murdered in the attack were Victor Shimshon Green, 33, Revital Bronstein, 24, Shahar Goldman, 30, Inbar Segev Vigder, 33, Nadia Sokolenco, 40, Ilia Nozadze, 42, a Georgian citizen and Jonas Chrosis, 26, a Greek citizen.
The attack came amid heightened tensions in Israel, as the Israel Defense Forces announced a ground incursion into Lebanon in a bid to push the Hezbollah terror group away from the border, and just minutes before Iran launched a massive missile attack on Israel.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
