In a joint operation, Israel Police and Shabak agents have arrested a terrorist from Hebron who is suspected of having murdered Yehuda and Tamar Kaduri in their Jerusalem home in 2019, and who is also being linked to an attempt to murder a young girl in the capital's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. The terrorist is also believed to be responsible for last month's attack on two foreigners in Jerusalem's Arnona neighborhood.
In 2019, police received a report of a couple found murdered in their home in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, a "seamline" area where many nationalist crimes have been committed in the past. Yehuda and Tamar Kaduri had been cruelly murdered, their throats slit. On the previous day, a young girl had been attacked and wounded with a knife in the same neighborhood, and police suspected the attacks were connected.
An investigation was opened but no arrests were made, and then last month, two Moldovan citizens were attacked with a knife in their Jerusalem apartment. Ivan Tarnowski had been killed and his friend was injured. This time, police found evidence that significantly advanced their investigation, and just hours after the murder, Wassim Assayed, a 34-year-old PA Arab from Hebron was arrested in northern Jerusalem, while attempting to cross the separation fence and flee into PA-controlled territory.
Assayed was taken into custody while in possession of a knife and was transferred to the GSS for questioning, due to his identification with the Islamic State (ISIS) and suspicion of his involvement in terrorist activities.
It later emerged that the suspect had been released from administrative detention just four days prior to his arrest. He had been held for almost three years due to involvement in terrorist crimes unrelated to the murders in question and was even then known to be at least loosely affiliated with ISIS and involved in planning what the organization hoped would be a "quality attack" against Israeli citizens.
Assayed was held in custody between 2015 and 2018, when he was released. He was rearrested, this time by PA security forces, in 2019, and held for several months. Just a few months after his release he was again arrested by Israeli police and put on trial for incitement and membership in a criminal organization. He was imprisoned and then released to administrative detention. Almost three years later he was released, and less than a week later he was allegedly involved in another murder.
Now, finally, the suspect in a string of murders has been arrested by police and a prosecutor's statement has been filed against him. An indictment is expected to be issued by Friday.
In the course of his interrogations, Assayed has admitted to supporting the ideology of ISIS and to having sworn allegiance.
The investigation was assisted by the criminal identification department of Israel Police, as well as the Medical Jurisprudence Institute.