By Michael Bachner/TPS
Yatta (TPS) – Israeli police cleared for publication on Wednesday, February 24 the arrest of an Arab stabber who carried out an attack in the southern town of Rahat.
According to the police and the Israel Security Agency (ISA), a seventeen-year-old Arab from the Palestinian Authority village of Yatta near Hebron was arrested two weeks ago on suspicion of carrying out the stabbing attack in Rahat that left an Israeli woman wounded. The arrest has now been cleared for publication.
The attack took place at a market in the predominantly Bedouin town on Saturday, February 6, and left 65-year-old shopper Shlomit Gonen from the nearby kibbutz of Mishmar HaNegev lightly wounded.
The Israel Police and the ISA pursued the terrorist in a four-day effort until making the arrest on February 10. The suspect linked himself to the attack and led the investigators to the knife he used during the stabbing.
The suspect also said he was influenced by videos of terror attacks and propaganda materials he saw on television, including on the Al-Aqsa channel. He also said that in recent months, as well as during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in 2014, he participated along with family members in violent riots against IDF forces in Judea and Samaria.
He also said that he and his family used a breach in the security fence to get to Rahat and stay there illegally.
According to police, the suspect will be indicted over the next few days.