Factory employee in north stabbed to death; coworker suspected

In separate incident, 83-year-old woman killed in her home in Umm al-Fahm, as total number of suspected murders on Sunday rises to three

By ToI Staff 28 July 2019, 7:59 pm

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Bashar Hakrush, a worker at a Kiryat Shmona factory, who was allegedly stabbed to death by a coworker on July 28, 2019. (Courtesy)

An employee at a food factory in northern Israel was stabbed to death Sunday, and an 83-year-old woman was killed in her home in Umm al-Fahm, in a separate incident, bringing to three the day’s total number of suspected murders throughout the country.

The 20-year-old worker at a chicken factory in Kiryat Shmona was allegedly stabbed by a colleague, following a dispute between the two, authorities said. The victim was named as Bashar Hakrush from Kafr Kanna.

Paramedics from the Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service found Hakrush in serious condition in the city’s Yarden Street and attempted to resuscitate him, but were forced to declare him dead at the scene, medics said.

The suspect, who is known to police, was arrested following a short manhunt, police said. He is also a resident of a village in the Galilee region.

In a separate incident in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm, an elderly woman was stabbed to death in her home, with her 47-year-old son arrested as a suspect after attempting to flee the city.

בת 83 נרצחה באום אל פחם, הבן החשוד נלכד בתום מצודhttps://t.co/WyGeelQ1Dc pic.twitter.com/aIOkeaEikt

— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) July 28, 2019

The victim was named in media reports as Zeinab Mahamid. The son, who is known to police, was taken in for questioning.

Mahamid’s relatives, who had called the police, confronted officers at the scene and asked “why wasn’t the murderer in jail?” Hebrew-language media reported. The relatives also apparently smashed the window of a police vehicle.

The two killings came after a man was shot dead earlier Sunday, in central Israel, in what police described as a dispute over a parking spot at the Azrieli shopping mall in the central city of Ramle. Magen David Adom paramedics treated the critically injured man, and took him to the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center. Doctors later pronounced him dead.

On Sunday evening, he was named as Ofir Hasdai, 41. He was shot in his car in front of his wife, his daughter, 6, and their baby, Channel 12 reported. He was hit at close range by two bullets to the chest.

Police said they arrested a suspect in the shooting, a 74-year-old resident of the nearby town of Lod.