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Pilgrimage to Mecca inspired Palestinian to murder Israelis

A Palestinian was inspired to murder Israelis during a religious pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. 

A Palestinian terrorist who seriously wounded an Israeli in a stabbing attack in the coastal town of Yavneh at the beginning of the month was inspired to commit the attack during a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, according to an indictment filed against him on Monday.

The Israeli state prosecution filed an indictment against Ismail Abu Aram, 19, from the Hebron area, for the “attempted murder in terrorism circumstances” of Niv Nehama, a 42-year-old Israeli victim, during an attack at a local supermarket.

According to the indictment, Abu Aram recently became more religious and was encouraged to carry out the Muslim commandment of “Jihad [Muslim holy war] against the Jewish Israeli occupation.”

During the last Muslim month of Ramadan, which occurred during June, Abu Aram made a 12-day pilgrimage to the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, which is holy to Muslims. There, he decided to commit Jihad by murdering a Jew in Israel.

On August 2, Abu Aram infiltrated Israel illegally with the intent of attacking his former employer. Armed with pepper spray, he sought out his former employer, but failing to find him, he sought out another victim.

He entered a local supermarket, stole a knife that was on sale and hid it in his pants. He then engaged the victim in conversation, during which he extracted the knife and stabbed the victim multiple times in his upper body.

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Nehama, a father of five, fought back despite his grave wounds, and the terrorist dropped his knife. Abu Aram then assaulted Nehama with pepper spray and fled the scene of the attack.

The terrorist was apprehended shortly after by a passerby and then turned over to the police.

The indictment noted “extreme severity” because the terrorist “did anything in his power to execute the attack,” and was calculated and retained a cool head throughout the entire attack.

His vicious and well-planned actions were “driven by a nationalist-racist motivation” which serve “as a thousand witnesses” to the terrorist’s “determination and dangerousness,” the indictment states.

Nehama, who was hospitalized in life-threatening condition, was released from the hospital on Sunday and hailed a hero by his treating doctors.

By: World Israel News Staff