Shin Bet: Stabbing last week in Rosh Ha’ayin was likely a terror attack
Authorities partially remove gag order on case in which Israeli man was seriously wounded, allegedly by a Palestinian assailant
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
A stabbing last week in the central town of Rosh Ha’ayin in which an Israeli man was seriously injured is suspected of being a terror attack, not the result of a scuffle as it was initially described, the Shin Bet security service said Tuesday.
The Israeli man visited a construction site last Saturday afternoon where he reportedly owned an apartment that was being built. Inside, he was stabbed multiple times, but managed to get outside to the street where he collapsed. A short while later, he was found by a passerby who called an ambulance. The injured man, a resident of Ashkelon in his 30s, was taken to Petah Tikva’s Beilinson Medical Center in serious condition, police said at the time.
Initial reports about the stabbing indicated that it occurred during a fight of some kind. Later that day, police requested and received a court-issued gag order on the case.
On Tuesday, the gag order was partially removed, as the Shin Bet revealed that the stabbing was being investigated as a terror attack and that the assailant was a Palestinian man who had entered Israel illegally.
“From investigating the suspect, the suspicion was raised that this was a nationalistically motivated event,” police said.
The suspect, who initially fled the scene, was arrested last Thursday in his hometown of Jenin, the security service said.
Police said they also arrested three other people, who are believed to have assisted the suspect.
“The suspect has been handed over for interrogation by the Shin Bet. All other details about the investigation are subject to a gag order,” the Shin Bet said.
