Terrorist attempted Jerusalem attack in order to die ‘as a martyr’

The eastern Jerusalem resident told his interrogators that he had wanted to die as a “martyr.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office on Thursday filed its official declaration of intent to indict a terrorist who attempted to stab a soldier in the capital last month.

According to details of the investigation, the man, a resident of eastern Jerusalem in his early 30s, had expressed his desire to die as a “martyr.”

He bought a knife in a home improvement store three days before the planned attack.

In the early afternoon of December 23, he drove to the neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev, near Jerusalem, and when he saw a soldier walking down the street, he exited his vehicle.

He approached his intended victim, waving the knife in the air and shouted, “Allahu Akbar [God is great], I will kill you and stab you in the head.”

Keeping his cool, the soldier first tried shouting and warning the terrorist off, but when that didn’t work, both the soldier and a civilian bystander who was witnessing the incident shot and seriously wounded the attacker.

According to a Channel 10 report, even while lying on the ground, the terrorist kept trying to reach for his weapon.

A large number of police descended on the scene, as did medical personnel,who treated the wounded suspect and took him to the hospital for treatment.

Jerusalem Police Chief Ronen Ovadia praised the soldier and civilian for taking quick action, saying, “The vigilance and alertness of the security officer, along with the vigilance of citizens, prevented harm to life, and the source of danger was quickly neutralized.”

The prosecutor’s statement is a tool in Israeli law that allows a suspect to be kept in custody for a period of up to five days after the end of the police investigation so that a lawyer can prepare the list of charges.

Police are not allowed to re-interrogate detainees during this time unless they request and receive from a judge an extension of the detention.

The prosecutor must declare that, based on a personal examination of the evidence, there is prima facie reason to file an indictment in the case and request that the suspect now be arrested and considered a defendant in an upcoming case.

Usually in nationalist-motivated crimes, defendants are held in custody until the end of the legal proceedings against them.