Palestinian ex-Shin Bet informant indicted for murder of elderly woman in Herzliya

Ibrahim Shalhoub, originally from the West Bank city of Tulkarem, stabbed 83-year-old Holocaust survivor Ludmila Lipovsky outside her assisted living facility last month

The scene of a deadly terror stabbing in Herzliya on December 27, 2024. (Magen David Adom); inset: Ludmila Lipovsky, 83, who was murdered in the attack. (Courtesy)
The scene of a deadly terror stabbing in Herzliya on December 27, 2024. (Magen David Adom); inset: Ludmila Lipovsky, 83, who was murdered in the attack. (Courtesy)

An indictment was filed Monday against Ibrahim Shalhoub, from the West Bank city of Tulkarem, on terrorism charges for the murder of 83-year-old Holocaust survivor Ludmila Lipovsky in Herzliya last month.

On December 27, Shalhoub, a former informant for the Shin Bet domestic security service, stabbed Lipovsky multiple times outside of her assisted living complex.

Shalhoub, 28, was allowed to leave Tulkarem and take up residency in Israel after his identity as a Shin Bet informant was exposed. According to the indictment, his family severed all ties with him shortly after he moved, and he decided to carry out a terror attack.

Two days before murdering Lipovsky, Shalhoub purchased a long kitchen knife with which to carry out the attack. He then spent the next day in Herzliya, scoping out an appropriate site for his attack, before settling on an assisted living complex in the city.

The following day, he allegedly armed himself with his new knife and one other knife, and made his way to the site he had inspected the previous day.

Lipovsky was outside when he arrived, having just left the complex to wait for her daughter, who was supposed to be driving her to an appointment.

When Shalhoub saw her, “he drew his knife and stabbed her in the upper body approximately 11 times,” while calling out “Allah is great” and praying in Arabic, the indictment stated.

Israeli security forces at the scene of a stabbing attack in Herzliya, December 27, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Shalhoub continued to stab Lipovsky until he was shot and wounded by a security guard from the Israel Post office who had been nearby.

He fell after he was shot, but attempted to get back up and attack the security guard, who fired at him a second time.

Lipovsky was rushed by the Magen David Adom ambulance service to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where doctors pronounced her dead.

The State Attorney’s Office said on Monday that it had requested Shalhoub be held in prison until the end of legal proceedings against him.

“The defendant is accused of carrying out a murderous terrorist attack, a security offense punishable by life imprisonment, which was committed with severe violence and cruelty,” it said in the request.

According to the Ynet news site, the Shin Bet concluded in an initial investigation that Shalhoub was not planning the attack for any significant length of time before carrying it out, as stabbing attacks are generally unplanned.

The security agency also stressed in the aftermath of the attack that its informants work in dangerous conditions on behalf of the State of Israel and that there had never before been an incident in which a former informant carried out a terror attack after moving to Israel.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.

Most Popular
read more: