Palestinian indicted for murder, terror in stabbing of rabbi in Petah Tikvah
Khalil Abd al-Khaliq Dweikat accused of setting out to kill a Jewish Israeli, and settling on Shai Ohayon, a father of four
A murder indictment was filed against a West Bank Palestinian man on Monday for stabbing to death Rabbi Shai Ohayon in the central city of Petah Tikva late last month.
Prosecutors filed the indictment at the Lod District Court against Khalil Abd al-Khaliq Dweikat, 46, from the village of Rujeeb in the northern West Bank. Dweikat was accused of murder under aggravated circumstances and of “unlawful possession of a knife in the circumstances of an act of terrorism.”
Court papers showed that Dweikat confessed the crime to investigators. Throughout his investigation the defendant did not “show any empathy, remorse, or regret for the victim or his family,” prosecutors noted.
Ohayon, a 39-year-old father of four, was a member of Petah Tikva’s ultra-Orthodox community and studied full time at a religious institution known as a kollel in the nearby town of Kfar Saba, according to ultra-Orthodox news outlets.
Prosecutors asked that Dweikat be held in custody until the end of proceedings, due to the serious nature of the crime he is accused of and the danger he poses to the public.
According to the indictment Dweikat worked at a construction site in the city and had a valid permit to be in Israel. “The defendant considered and arrived at a decision to kill a Jewish Israeli citizen or soldier with a knife… for Palestine, the Palestinian people, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Allah,” prosecutors wrote.
Taking a knife from the kitchen at the building site on August 26, Dweikat went looking for a victim. After an hour at around 1:15 p.m he saw Ohayon, whom he identified by his appearance as an ultra-Orthodox Jew.
“The defendant pulled out the knife from his pocket and stabbed the deceased with three deep cuts,” prosecutors wrote.
Ohayon called out for help and a passerby, noticing what was happening, threw an object at Dweikat in an effort to help the defendant.
“Only then did the defendant leave the deceased, who was already in critical condition, put the blood-covered knife in his pants pocket and started to walk away,” according to the indictment.
According to investigators, at that point Dweikat considered finding others to stab, but was arrested shortly afterwards.
Camera footage from the scene showed Dweikat calmly crossing a intersection with civilians and then police closing in on him.
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— Harel Noff (@HarelNoff) August 26, 2020
The Shin Bet security service previously said the incident was a terror attack. The Shin Bet vets potential Palestinian workers to make sure they are not a security threat before granting them work permits.
Dweikat, a father of six, had no history of terrorist activities, the Shin Bet said shortly after the attack.
It is highly unusual for Palestinians with work permits to carry out attacks in Israel, having undergone significant background checks and regular screenings by Israeli security services. It is similarly uncommon for so-called “lone wolf” attacks to be carried out by middle-aged men; typically assailants are in their teens or twenties.
