Israeli youth indicted for death of Arab woman

A 16-year-old, whose DNA was found on a rock that hit the victim in the head, was charged with manslaughter.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

The State Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday filed an indictment against a 16-year-old Israeli who was arrested in connection with the death of an Arab woman.

The indictment charges that in mid-October on a Friday night, the minor and other students positioned themselves on a hill adjacent to Highway 60, a major route running through Judea and Samaria, in the section between the Rehelim and Tapuah Junctions in Samaria.

“The defendant held a rock weighing about two kilograms, with the aim of hitting Arab passengers on the road, out of an ideological motive of racism and hostility towards Arabs wherever they may be,” the indictment states.

Aisha Rabi, her husband and their nine-year-old daughter were traveling on the road on their way home to the Palestinian village of Biddya at a high speed of about 100 kilometers per hour. The defendant threw the rock at the car’s windshield “in order to hit the occupants, indifferent to the possibility of causing their death,” the indictment charges.

The rock hit the right upper part of the windshield, smashing and penetrating it, and hitting Aisha’s head directly and with great force.

As a result, Aisha, 48 and the mother of nine, suffered a severe and fatal head injury.

Aisha’s husband managed not to lose control of the vehicle and avoided hitting other motorists.

Reports say that the defendant’s DNA was found on the rock.

The Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) arrested five Israeli minors suspected of involvement in the stone-throwing attack on passing cars near the Israeli community of Rehelim, but subsequently released all of them except the one defendant.

He was charged with manslaughter in the circumstances of a terrorist act, throwing a stone at a vehicle in aggravated circumstances under terrorist circumstances, and deliberately sabotaging the vehicle in circumstances of a terrorist act.