Palestinian indicted for terror, attempted murder in Rosh Ha'ayin stabbing

Walid Mansour accused of illegally slipping into Israel from West Bank, tricking Refael Levi into accompanying him to construction site, then stabbing him some 20 times

A Palestinian man was indicted Wednesday on charges of attempted murder and terror activity for a stabbing attack in Rosh Ha’ayin last month when he allegedly plunged a knife some 20 times into his victim, causing serious injury.

Walid Mansour, 23 from the town of Jenin in the West Bank, was also charged with causing severe injury, robbery and other offenses.

The attack at a construction site in the central city was initially investigated as a brawl, but after victim Refael Levi, 31, awoke from his coma, he told investigators information that led them to change course and probe it as a terror attack.

According to the indictment filed at the Tel Aviv District Court, Mansour slipped through a hole in the West Bank security fence armed with a knife. He encountered Levi at the building site, where the latter had an apartment under construction. The suspect allegedly lied to Levi that he had keys to check on the apartments in the building and the two went inside, ostensibly to review Levi’s property. Inside the building Mansour stabbed Levi some 20 times, leaving him in critical condition.

Taking his victim’s cellphone and car keys, he fled the scene and headed back to his home town of Jenin.

Levi was able to make his way to the entrance to the building where passersby raised the alert and he was taken to the hospital.

In Jenin, Mansour hid out for several days in an apartment with the help of a friend. He is said to have cut his hair and beard and instructed those around him to call him by an alias.

Israeli security forces eventually arrested Mansour in a raid two weeks ago. Police said they also arrested three other people, who are believed to have assisted him.

Mansour later reenacted the incident at the building site for police investigators, according to Channel 13 news.

https://www.facebook.com/rafi.levi.5/posts/3510304945686193

Levi wrote on Facebook last week: “The terrorist, may he be damned, managed to stab me 28 times and injured me very, very badly. I nearly lost my life, but I won!”