Concluding an undercover investigation, Israel Police solved the case of the disappearance of a young Jewish woman from the Benjamin region.
Muhammad Harouf, an Arab resident of Shechem, has confessed to murdering his Jewish girlfriend, Michal Halimi, 29, from Adam (or Geva) in the Benjamin region, who was eight months pregnant.
Harouf led police through the site of the murder. His girlfriend’s body had been found last week in the Holon dunes, south of Tel Aviv. Additional suspects had previously been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the crime.
On May 28, Police launched an investigation following a report on the disappearance of Michal Halimi. The investigation revealed that the missing woman had voluntarily left her home in Adam and was apparently staying in the home of a young Arab man from Shechem with whom she had a romantic relationship. According to some media accounts Halimi was also married to a Jewish man in the Binyamin region, and left him to go with Harouf.
Halimi and Harouf opened a Facebook account together, where they shared photos and declared their intention to become engaged.
As the investigation of Halimi’s disappearance progressed, Harouf was picked up for questioning, and in the first stage of his interrogation his version of the whereabouts of his missing girlfriend was full of contradictions, according to Police.
As more and more evidence picked up by Police seemed to point to the victim’s death, the investigation continued undercover and Police arrested a number of residents of the Arab city of Tayibe in Israel.
In the course of his interrogations, Harouf confessed and reconstructed the murder, leading Police to the area in the Holon dunes where he met the deceased, choked her, threw stones at her head, covered her body, and left in her car.
During his court appearance on Wednesday, Harouf declared that he had murdered his girlfriend Halimi in order to secure the release of terrorist prisoners. He did not offer specifics.