Palestinian man pleads not guilty to murder in Tel Aviv stabbings

A Palestinian man who stabbed two Israelis to death in Tel Aviv last year pleaded not guilty to murder charges at the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday.

Raed Masalmeh, 36, a father of five from a Hebron-area town in the West Bank, has previously admitted to taking a nine-inch knife from the Tel Aviv restaurant where he worked and fatally stabbing Reuven Aviram and Aharon Yesiav outside a nearby office building synagogue on November 19, 2015.

During the hearing, Masalmeh’s attorney told the court his client did not plan the murders, and requested the court downgrade the charges from murder to manslaughter.

Masalmeh had told investigators he was driven to carry out the attack for nationalistic reasons and claimed he wanted to die as a martyr. During a December court hearing where he reenacted his crime, Masalmeh expressed regret for his actions and cried.

State prosecutors rejected Masalmeh’s request, telling the judge on Monday that “multiple eyewitness accounts and the defendant’s previous testimony prove his intention to murder.”

Masalmeh declined to undergo a psychological examination and the judge set a trial date for July.

According to the indictment, Masalmeh stabbed several men gathered for Mincha, the Jewish afternoon prayer service, in the Panorama office building. After stabbing two men outside the makeshift prayer room, other worshipers struggled with Masalmeh for a few minutes as he tried to force his way inside the room.

He eventually abandoned his efforts and left, stabbing a third victim he encountered outside before he was overpowered and subdued by passersby.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by his family to halt the upcoming demolition of their family home over his actions.

On Monday, the Walla news website reported that another Palestinian assailant, facing murder charges for killing an Israeli mall security guard with an axe in a Jerusalem-area settlement in February, changed his testimony and admitted the bloody assault was premeditated.

Saadi Ali Abu Ahmad, a 21-year-old resident of the West Bank town of Azariya, initially claimed his attack on Tzvika Cohen was unplanned and was driven by a personal vendetta.

A short time later, he changed his story and told investigators the attack was nationalistically motivated.

Ahmad’s attorney, however, said Shin Bet investigators placed “extreme” pressure on his client to change his testimony.

Tariq Bargot said he would request an explanation from the security agency detailing Ahmad’s confession.

According to the Judea Military Court’s indictment, Ahmad decided to carry out the attack after watching a news story in January in which Israeli security forces denied medical assistance to injured Palestinian assailants.

Prosecutors said he planned the attack for several weeks, and smuggled an axe he had brought from home into the food court of the Ma’ale Adumim mall where he worked.

Late on the night of February 25, Ahmad attacked Cohen, striking him multiple times in the head and upper body with the axe and before suffocating him with pepper spray.

Afterwards, Ahmad fled to the home of a relative in his hometown, where he confessed to the attack. The relative convinced Ahmad to turn himself in to the Israeli security forces.

He faces charges of voluntary manslaughter in a West Bank military court, the equivalent of an attempted murder charge in an Israeli civilian court.

In March, a spokesperson for Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, reported Cohen was showing significant signs of improvement and was set to begin rehabilitation.