Description

Photo:
Mousa Sarsour, 28, from Qalqilia. Published by IMEMC News

Screenshot from surveillance video. Published by IMEMC News

The Tel Aviv street where Moussa Sarsour's body was found, this week. Credit: Tomer Appelbaum for Haaretz Published by IMEMC News
____

by IMEMC News
Sept 22, 2022

On Wednesday, Israeli police said they found the body of a Palestinian believed to have killed an elderly Israeli woman in Tel Aviv the previous day. The man’s body was found hanging from a noose, and the Israeli police claimed that he ‘committed suicide’.

The previous night, on Tuesday, Israeli police say they found the body of an elderly Israeli woman, Shulamit Rachel Ovadia, 84, in the Holon suburb in Tel Aviv. They then initiated a massive manhunt for the suspect, who, according to the police, was Mousa Sarsour, 28, from Qalqilia, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, who was working in construction in an area near where the woman was killed.

His body, found hanging from a noose, was found by an Israeli man heading to a synagogue in the area.

Israeli media published a surveillance video showing a man who they claim was Sarsour, approaching the woman from behind before hitting her in the head and then fleeing the area. The video was very unclear, but police told the Israeli public through repeated media reports that they were searching for a Palestinian man, and asked for help from the public to locate the suspect.

A day later, a Palestinian man was found hanged to death in an abandoned building, just a few miles from where the Israeli woman was killed, and the police claimed he “committed suicide.”

Israeli media outlets claimed that Sarsour “entered Israeli legally, on Tuesday morning, and carried a valid work permit.”

Sarsour’s family said the Israeli police statements and reports do not represent the truth and denied the Israeli allegations that Sarsour was involved in the murder. The police initially called the killing a homicide, then shifted the accusation to claim the incident was “nationally motivated” and eventually labeled it as a “terrorist attack.”

“Our son was a quiet, shy person and had mental issues and a speech impediment,” the family said, “He took various sorts of medications and was also addicted to narcotics, which caused him many side effects that impacted his overall well-being.”

“We do not believe the allegations and the narrative of the Israeli police; we believe the Israeli police were looking for someone else with similar physical characteristics,” the family added, “We also do not believe the allegation that he committed suicide; we think someone killed him after the police released a blurry distant image from a surveillance video and a vague physical description of the man who killed that Israeli woman. We believe our son became terrified after hearing the descriptions and allegations and ran away in fear.”

Sarsour was not known to have a political affiliation or ties to Palestinian resistance groups. He also carried a work permit and was trying to support himself by working in construction.

It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army abducted at least eleven relatives of Sarsour after storming and searching their homes in the occupied West Bank.
____

Palestinian Who Murdered Elderly Woman in Central Israel Had Been Diagnosed With Schizophrenia

Moussa Sarsour, who beat 84-year-old Shlomit Ovadia to death before committing suicide earlier this week, was found to be mentally unstable by Palestinian medical professionals, but had received an Israeli work permit regardless

by Hagar Shezaf for Haaretz
Sept 24, 2022

The Palestinian man who beat an elderly Israeli woman to death before hanging himself earlier this week had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at a Palestinian hospital, documents revealed to Haaretz show.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry documents, Moussa Sarsour had undergone testing at a psychiatric hospital in the West Bank city of Salfit, and that medical professionals had defined him in the past three months as unstable.

Sarsour had a permit to work in Israel; as part of the process for receiving such authorization, the Shin Bet security service does not examine Palestinian mental health assessments, and only takes into account whether there are indications that the applicant has been involved in activities that threaten Israeli security.

Sarsour had a temporary permit, of the sort issued to Palestinians who are seeking Israeli employment, and are intended to be replaced by long-term permits after they find work.

Earlier this week, the Kan public broadcaster reported that in August, the Palestinian Health Ministry recommended that Sarsour be institutionalized after he threatened medical staff in the presence of police officers. When questioned by the Shin Bet, Sarsour's family members said that he suffers from mental illness.

Sarsour, a 24-year-old resident of a village near Qalqilya, killed 84-year-old Shlomit Ovadia in the city of Holon on Tuesday. After a manhunt by Israeli security services, he was found to have hanged himself between two buildings on a central Tel Aviv street. Police are treating the attack as an act of terrorism.

In the two weeks before the attack, Sarsour had aroused the suspicion of the police on two occasions, once two weeks ago in Tel Aviv and once three days before the attack in Holon. In both cases, he was released shortly after they verified his work permit.