Tel Aviv Beachfront Stabber Indicted for Attempted Murder

Ahmad Agbar, the Arab terrorist who went on a stabbing spree last month in Tel Aviv and injured four people, was indicted Monday on charges of attempted murder. According to the charge sheet, Agbar, an 18-year-old resident of Shechem, “made up his mind to kill Jews,” with the thought of arrest, on the way to the attack, or death as a “martyr” at the hands of IDF soldiers, not stopping him.

The stabbings took place at the entrance of the Leonardo Beach Hotel on the Tel Aviv pedestrian oceanfront pedestrian mall on April 23rd. Agbar attacked four people, wounding them lightly. According to the indictment, the attack was premeditated, with Agbar planning it for at least a month. He contrived to join a tour group to visit Tel Aviv – where he had decided to carry out the attack – and received a one-day visa for the visit. Agbar chose the target by reviewing on-line maps of Tel Aviv and matching them with the route of the tour. Knowing he would be unable to smuggle a weapon into Israel, he filed the metallic portion of his belt into a sharp object, and used this in the stabbing attack, the indictment said.

According to prosecutors, Agbar had attempted to carry out a similar attack in 2016. In December of that year, he decided to carry out a stabbing attack in the Dead Sea area, and got into a cab to travel to the area. He changed his mind, however, when the taxi driver told him that that there were few visitors to the Dead Sea at that time of year, and asked to be taken back home – dropping his knife out the window in the area of Jericho.

In the wake of last month’s attack, Israel froze the tour program which allowed Palestinian Authority residents to take one-day tours of Israel. The tours are conducted by an organization that seeks to build better relationships between Israelis and Palestinians. The visas are issued only after a prospective recipient is vetted for security issues. The IDF is examining the vetting process, it said after the suspension of the program, in order to ensure that it is not used again as a means for terrorists to enter Israel.