The Shin Bet security agency and the Israel Police have solved the firebombing attack in the Jaffa neighborhood of Ajami that seriously injured a 12-year-old child. Three residents have been arrested on suspicion of carrying out attacks, planning additional attacks, and possessing illegal weapons.
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The suspects' arrest followed a monthlong investigation by the Shin Bet and the Tel Aviv District Police. An eyewitness to the attack reported seeing two masked men throw three Molotov cocktails, one toward 77 Kedem Street and another at a vehicle parked nearby. The eyewitness reported seeing a third suspect firebomb apartment on 75 Kedem Street. DNA belonging to the first suspect arrested in the attack was found on bottle fragments at the scene of the crime.
Police believe the first two suspects continued toward Ibn Sina Street, where they firebombed the home of a Jewish woman. A few minutes later, the suspects firebombed the home of 12-year-old Muhammad. Police were able to identify the suspects thanks to a scrap of paper inside a bucket the alleged attackers disposed of in a garbage can nearby. It was thanks to the DNA on that piece of paper that police were able to make the arrests.
According to police, the suspects are two brothers who planned to perpetrate attacks on Jews along with a friend of theirs from outside the Ajami neighborhood. They prepared the Molotov cocktails at the brothers' home and intentionally targeted Jewish homes in their attacks.
Two of the suspects in the attack have ties to organized crime, while the third is from a family that owns several businesses in Jaffa.
Police believe the attack, which severely injured a 12-year-old Arab Israeli boy and lightly wounded his 10-year old sister, was a case of mistaken identity. They say the suspect that threw the Molotov cocktail did not discern the Ramadan lights inside the victims' home. The father of one of the suspects' allegedly instructed his son to clean up the crime scene to ensure no incriminating evidence would be found.
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