Yavneh stabber to be indicted, as his victim released from hospital

Israel’s state prosecution has decided to indict a 19-year old Palestinian for an attack earlier this month during which he repeatedly stabbed a supermarket worker in the southern city of Yavneh, police said Sunday. The announcement came shortly after the victim was released from the hospital after nearly four weeks.

Following a joint investigation by the Israel Police and the Shin Bet Security Agency into the August 2 attack, police said charges would brought Monday against Ismail Ibrahim Ismail Abu Aram from the West Bank town of Yatta near Hebron for “attempted murder.”

“During the investigation the suspect admitted to carrying out the attack and claimed that he came to stab Jews in order to carry out the commandment of jihad,” a police statement said.

The announcement came hours after Niv Nehemiah, a deputy manager at the “Super Deal” supermarket where the attack took place, was released from the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, where he had been recovering from serious injuries that initially put him in critical condition.

Niv Nehamia (C) flanked by his parents after being released from the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, nearly a month after suffering multiple stab wounds during a terrorist attack in Yavneh, August 27, 2017. (Kaplan Medical Center)

Nehemiah was stocking shelves when Abu Aram took out a knife and stabbed him in the upper body. Though injured, Nehemiah fought off the terrorist and ran, blocking the aisle after him with a handcart, his assailant hot in pursuit.

He suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest, neck and head, according to medical officials.

Nehemia was taken to hospital in critical condition, and after an hours-long operation to stop the bleeding and repair the damage caused by Abu Aram’s attack, his condition stabilized, but remained serious.

He remained unconscious for four days and has undergone numerous surgeries over the past month on his path to recovery.

“I want to thank God for giving me the strength to get through this,” Nehemia told Channel 2 News Sunday in a whisper, his vocal chords having been slashed during the attack. “I still have a ways to go, but if I have made it this far, I can keep going.”

After the stabbing, Abu Aram fled the scene and was tackled by civilians. He was later arrested by security forces.

Shortly after the attack, the IDF raided Abu Aram’s home and placed a cordon around his village.

IDF soldiers conduct raids in the West Bank village of Yatta, near Hebron, on August 3, 2017. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

According to the Shin Bet security service, Abu Aram entered Israel illegally, without a required permit. He had no history of terror activity and was transferred to the Shin Bet security service for questioning.

In the past two years of increased violence in the West Bank and Israel, several Palestinian terrorists have come from Yatta, notably the two gunmen who carried out the Tel Aviv Sarona Market terror attack in June 2016, in which four people were killed and over a dozen wounded.