The Central District Prosecution filed an indictment against Assad Yussef Assad Al-Rafa'i, 19, and Sabhi Imad Sabhi Abu Shakir, 20, both residents of the Jenin area, for the Independence Day terrorist attack they carried out in Elad.
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The two were indicted on three counts of aggravated murder and acts of terror such as attempted murder, serious injury, and aggravated injury. The prosecution requested their extended remand until the conclusion of the legal proceedings against them.
Elad Mayor Yisrael Porush was at the Central District Court for the terrorists' indictment. Calling for them to receive the death sentence, Porush said they were "ingrates" and "despicable murderers who need to be sent to the gallows. They ate from the bread of the Jews and murdered them. Rags."
According to the indictment, Abu Shakir decided to carry out a terrorist attack in Israel following the death of one of his friends in clashes with the Israel Defense Forces in August 2021. He suggested to Al-Rafa'I that the two carry out an attack together, but the latter refused. In April 2022, following the death of another friend and Al-Rafa'i becoming increasingly religious and in the belief that Israel was harming worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, the two decided to murder Israelis.
The two were in Ramallah the evening before the attack, dining at a restaurant and preparing their wills as well as performing purification rituals ahead of the act. Having failed to acquire firearms, they decided to carry out the attack with knives and axes. They were then taken by an accomplice to the separation fence in the area of Rantis in the West Bank. They then cut a hole in the fence and entered Israel.
Hiding in a nearby grove, they waited for a driver to take them to Elad. They decided in advance that if their driver was Jewish, they would kill him upon arriving at their destination. Lod resident Oren Ben Yiftach, a father of six, picked up the terrorists and was stabbed 21 times in the torso by Al-Rafa'I when they arrived in the city. They then pushed Ben Yiftach, a father of six, out of the car. Unable to start the car, they decided to continue on foot and began to search for Jews.
They chased one Elad resident who managed to get away and broke the window of a passing car before noticing a playground where children and adults were celebrating Israel's Independence Day. It was there that they murdered Boaz Gol and Yonatan Havakuk, each of them a father of five, and wounded five others before fleeing the city. They managed to evade arrest for four days before being apprehended by security forces in Nahshonim Forest, outside of Elad.
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