Fourth Palestinian suspect arrested over Israeli officer's murder

The arrest follows an intensive investigation initiated after three terrorists from the West Bank illegally entered Jerusalem and carried out two simultaneous coordinated attacks.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD
Updated: JULY 3, 2017 01:56
Hadas Malka, assassinée la semaine dernière à la porte de Damas (photo credit: FACEBOOK)
Hadas Malka, assassinée la semaine dernière à la porte de Damas
(photo credit: FACEBOOK)
Police have arrested a fourth Palestinian suspect in the investigation of the murder of 23-year-old Border Policewoman St.-Sgt- Maj. Hadas Malka, who was stabbed to death while guarding the Old City’s Damascus Gate on June 17.
The arrest last week followed an intensive investigation initiated after three terrorists from the West Bank illegally entered Jerusalem and carried out two simultaneous attacks using an improvised automatic weapon and knives.
“Late last week, a man from the suspects’ neighborhood of Deir Abu Mash’al, near Ramallah, who is accused of organizing and coordinating the transportation for them, was placed under arrest and questioned,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld on Sunday.
“He helped the terrorists and other illegal workers get in and out of Judea and Samaria to Jerusalem. This is part of an ongoing investigation as the investigation expands into different areas outside of Jerusalem.”
All three assailants involved in the two June 17 incidents, including the two who staged a shooting attack near Zedekiah’s Cave, some 100 meters from the Damascus Gate, were shot dead by officers.
On June 21, three suspects accused of aiding the assailants were arrested, including a 52-year-old man from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiya who transported the terrorists to the area, and the mother and father of one of the terrorists, who are suspected of assisting their son. They have since been arraigned at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, where a judge ordered their continued remand.
Meanwhile, Rosenfeld said heightened security would continue in the capital, with an emphasis on the Old City, the Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter.
Shortly after the first arrests were made, Asst.-Ch. Yoram Halevy, commander of the Israel Police’s Jerusalem District, issued a statement saying he told Malka’s father he would personally ensure that those responsible for his daughter’s murder would be held to account.
“I promised Hadas’s father that, as we have done in previous attacks in Jerusalem, our hands will reach anyone involved in the attack in any way, and anyone who dares to openly express support and utter inflammatory incitement and encouragement for the attack,” Halevy said at the time. “We did the same with the arrest of these... suspects. We will respond with a heavy hand.”
Noting that the three assailants who carried out the two attacks entered Jerusalem unlawfully from Deir Abu Mash’al, police enforced a massive crackdown, arresting 350 other Arab suspects who had illegally entered Jerusalem from the West Bank.