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Shin Bet releases four of five Jewish suspects in Arab driver’s death

The suspects – all minors – were arrested in connection with a rock ambush that killed an Arab woman.

By World Israel News Staff

Four of the five Jewish youths who were arrested in connection with a rock ambush that killed an Arab woman were released from jail today (Thursday). The four minors will remain under house arrest for six days and are not allowed to communicate with other suspects in the case.

The remand of the fifth suspect was extended by six days. His attorney appealed the ruling.

Three of the suspects had been under arrest for 12 days. The two others were arrested last Saturday.

All of the suspects are students from the Pri Haaretz yeshiva in the community of Rechelim, in Samaria. They are suspected of involvement in the killing of Aisha Rabi, a 47-year-old Palestinian woman. A large rock struck Rabi’s head on the evening of October 12 as she traveled by car with her husband and daughter.

Rabi’s husband, who was driving the car, said he heard a few people speaking Hebrew at the scene of the attack.

The suspects’ parents and attorneys, as well as numerous voices from the right wing and the communities of Judea and Samaria, have protested what they claim was the torture that the youths were subjected to while under arrest, at the hands of Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) interrogators.

The Shin Bet denied the allegations and claimed that all investigative processes “were carried out under close judicial observation by the prosecution and courts,” and that the suspects received “all of the conditions required by law, in accordance with their age and their belief.”

Police raided the Pri Haaretz Yeshiva yesterday and summoned 30 more students to give evidence regarding their schoolmates’ alleged involvement in the attack.

Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir, who represents one of the suspects, said today that “it was clear from the outset” that the prosecution has “no real material tying the suspects, including my client, to involvement” with Rabi’s death.