Rosh Ha’ayin stabber inspired to ‘kill Jews’ after dream of Muhammad
Shatilla Abu Aida was indicted in the Lod District Court on Sunday for stabbing a woman early this month in the Rosh Ha’ayin industrial zone, where the accused worked as a cleaner at a hi-tech company.
The indictment charges Abu Aida, 23, from Kafr Kasim, with attempted murder.
Prosecutors asked that she remain in custody until the end of the proceedings against her.
According to the indictment, Abu Aida was inspired by the beating and murder of 16-yearold Muhammad Abu Khdeir in July 2014, the murder of three numbers of the Dawabsha family in the Duma arson attack in July 2015, and the death of a knife-wielding woman, Hadeel al-Hashlamun, 18, at an IDF checkpoint in Hebron in September 2015.
The indictment describes Abu Aida’s dream in which “the Prophet Muhammad appeared looking for her,” which brought her to the realization that she must grow closer to her religion and “kill Jews for the sake of redemption.”
The suspect originally intended to build a bomb at home and place it in a restaurant adjacent to her place at work, according to the indictment. She allegedly researched instructions for the assembly of such a device, yet failed to acquire all the parts and properly assemble them. At that point, she alleged decided to carry out a stabbing attack.
On April 3, Abu Aida set out from her house in Kafr Kasim for nearby Rosh Ha’ayin with two knives concealed in her pants. She discarded her cellular phone en route to the industrial area, and, upon identifying a 30-year-old Jewish woman, assaulted her with a knife.
The Jewish woman sustained a wound to her left hand, and began battling her assaulter.
Passersby tried to subdue the stabber. They threw rocks in her direction until she started to run away, at which point they chased her, caught her, and held her down with the help of chairs, until security personnel arrived.
During questioning, Abu Aida said she had intended to harm as many Jews as possible.
She handed over her journal to investigators, in which she wrote that she wished to die as a “martyr.”