Woman charged in stabbing attack, accused of plotting shooting

An Israeli Arab woman was charged with attempted murder Sunday over a stabbing attack in the central Israeli town of Rosh Ha’ayin earlier this month during which a woman was lightly injured.

Prosecutors at Lod District Court also accused Shatila Abu Iyadh, 22, of planning to carry out a bombing or shooting attack but said she failed to get her hands on the materials she need.

According to the charge sheet, Abu Iyadh had told investigators she dreamed the Prophet Mohammed was “looking for her.” As a result she became more fervent in her Islamic beliefs, she said, and decided to carry out a terror attack.

She planned on attacking one of two restaurants in the Ofek area of Rosh Ha’ayin, a working-class city with a commercial area adjacent to her hometown of Kafr Kassem, and scouted out her two targets on several occasions to learn when there would be the most people inside.

Following instructions from an internet video, she bought materials and tried to concoct explosives, but failed. She then tried to obtain a gun through an acquaintance, claiming she wanted it to fire into the air for celebrations, a custom in Arab communities.

For the shooting attack, Abu Iyadh looked to Jerusalem but changed her mind after traveling to the capital and becoming alarmed at the heavy presence of police and security forces.

The contact offered a pistol at first but she insisted on a more powerful automatic weapon which, she reasoned, would kill more people in an attack. However, that plan failed too after the gun contact stopped communicating with her.

Having failed to make a bomb or obtain a gun, Iyadh resolved to carry out a stabbing. On April 3 she traveled to the Rosh Ha’ayin industrial park armed with two knives and stabbed her victim, lightly wounding her in the left hand.

A security guard in the area who witnessed the attack, along with other bystanders, subdued the stabber without firing shots after a short chase, and took the knife from her hand and another from her bag, police said.

Abu Iyadh was also charged with planning a shooting attack in Jerusalem and the court ordered she remain in detention.

The victim was treated by paramedics at the scene and then taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva for further treatment.

In the past six months since the ongoing wave of terror began in October, 29 Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed. Nearly 200 Palestinians have also been killed, some two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israeli army.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials have pointed to a sharp drop in the number of attacks.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.