Arab Israeli indicted for fatal terror attack

An Arab-Israeli terrorist said he was driven by hatred for Jews when he shot and killed one and wounded another. 

Mohammed Shinawi, an Arab with Israeli citizenship and a resident of Haifa, was indicted on Monday in Haifa’s District Court, where he was charged with the murder of one Israeli and the wounding of another.

Shinawi, 21, went on a shooting rampage in Haifa three weeks ago. In two separate incidents, he shot and killed Guy Cafri, and moderately wounded Yechiel Ilouz. He also shot at a woman, who escaped uninjured.

He was charged with murder, attempted murder, the use of a weapon to carry out an act of terrorism, illegal position of a weapon, and theft and attempted theft of vehicles.

Two of Shinawi’s associates, Khaled Adel Saliman Abu Kaliv and Ihab Ayoub Mahmoud Yusef,  also Arab Israelis, were indicted for assisting and helping him escape.

Shinawi declared that he carried out his attack because he wanted to harm Jews.

This was not his first act of terrorism. He set fire to cars owned by Jews during the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006.

His hatred for Jews intensified in recent years as he became more religious and became convinced that Jews were “unbelievers who deserved death,” the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) said.

What finally triggered the shooting spree were accusations by his girlfriend that he was a Jew-lover and a ”Zionist Jew.”

After the shooting, Israel’s security forces conducted an intense manhunt for two days, at the end of which Shinawi turned himself in. He hid in two different mosques during his flight.

After initially denying that his son carried out the attack, Shinawi’s father Yousef strongly condemned the attack.

He told Israel’s NRG news that he was shocked. “I did not grow up like this, and I am not one of these people. I am in shock from him. How did he go this way, I don’t know. What got into his head?”

“He should receive his punishment. I told my wife that I wish that he die. We [Jews and Arabs] live together, we are human beings. Why kill Jews?” he asked, saying he had no intention of maintaining any connection with his son.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

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