Honenu Attorney Ophir Steiner; Photo credit: Reut Steiner
Monday, August 14, 2023, 19:39 Last Thursday, a Jewish garage worker in Petah Tikva was stabbed by another worker in the garage, a Jordanian Arab working in Israel under a temporary entry permit. The victim works with his father and uncle. When he went to wash his hands in the back of the garage, the Arab worker suddenly jumped up, shouted “Allah hu akhbar,” and stabbed him. There was no interaction between the two before the attack. The victim was seriously injured, one of his lungs was punctured, and he started hemorrhaging.
Honenu Attorney Ophir Steiner wrote a letter to the Anti-crime Unit Headquarters of the Sharon District Police on behalf of the family of the injured man and the garage owner, demanding that the incident be investigated as a terror attack. According to Attorney Steiner’s letter, before the attack, the Arab worker asked the uncle to retrieve something for him from the storeroom on the garage’s upper floor. Apparently, he wanted to get him out of the way. After the stabbing, the attacker picked up a car battery intending to throw it at the victim. The uncle, who arrived on the scene after hearing the victim shouting, saw what was happening and stopped the attacker from throwing the battery.
The uncle then tried to talk to the attacker and determine his motivation for the stabbing. The uncle tried to appeal to him, attempting to prevent additional injuries, saying, “See the trouble you’ve gotten yourself into… You killed the boy.” In response, the attacker continued to circle them and shout, “Allah hu akbar.” The ambulance arrived, and as the uncle was busy taking care of the victim’s transport to the hospital, the attacker gathered his things, destroyed his cell phone, and left the garage. The attacker then boarded a passing bus and continued to cause a disturbance, shouting, “Allah hu akhbar.” Police officers who arrived on the scene ordered him to disembark from the bus, which fortunately had no passengers. He refused. The police officers incapacitated him with a taser.
Considering the unfolding of events, Attorney Steiner states that the stabbing was nationalistically motivated, and should be investigated as a terror attack. As of now, even though several days have passed since the attack, the police have not taken testimony from the victim, who is still hospitalized and bedridden until yesterday. “To the extent that his medical condition allows, his testimony should be taken without delay, so that the ongoing investigation is not compromised. Because of his medical condition, it would be best for an interrogator to take testimony from him at the hospital,” wrote Steiner. He also cited in the letter that the entire attack was recorded by security cameras in the garage and that the family had given the recordings to the Israel Police.
Honenu Attorney Ophir Steiner said, “The eyewitness accounts by the victim and his family; confirmed by security-camera footage, show that it was a terror attack. The attacker definitely had nationalistic motives. We wrote to the Israel Police demanding that they investigate the incident according to its severity and finish taking testimony from the victim. The law enforcement system must bring the terrorist to justice. He all but took the life of a young man in front of his family.”