by Ilana Messika
Israel Police have arrested two people in connection with last Friday’s murder of Border Police Staff Sgt. Hadas Malka, z’l at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, Israel Police announced Wednesday. One of the detainees is the mother of one of the terrorists.
Malka was stabbed to death shortly before sundown, as Jews were beginning to mark the start of the Sabbath and Muslims were preparing to end their Sabbath and daytime Ramadan fast. Police shot three terrorists during the attack.
Police said the woman, a resident of the Palestinian Authority Arab village of Deir Abu Mash’al near Ramallah, was arrested on suspicion of forging contacts with the intent of committing a crime. Israeli Army Radio added that she is also suspected of incitement related to recent statements lauding shahids [martyrs] and calling for the harming of Jews.
Police also arrested on Wednesday a resident of Issawiya, an Arab neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, on suspicion that he drove the terrorists to the site of the attack. The detainee is suspected of knowing the terrorists’ intentions to perpetrate the attack but of failing to prevent them.
Investigators are expected to ask the Court to extend the remand of both suspects.
“I promised to Hadas’ father yesterday that we would get to the perpetrators of this attack, as we have done in previous attacks in Jerusalem,” said Jerusalem District Police Commander Yoram HaLevi.
“We will get to every person who had any connection at all to the attack and to anyone who dares to openly express support [for the attack] or to utter inciting statements or encourages people to support terror attacks like the one in which Hadas Malka was murdered.”