Israel Police Asst.-Ch. Jamal Hakroush resigned on Monday amid controversy surrounding footage from September that showed him stepping over the body of a person who had been stabbed. Hakroush was the head of a police division charged with combating violence in the Arab-Israeli sector.The footage, published by Haaretz, showed Hakroush stepping over the body of Ghazi Amara, who had just been stabbed in an altercation and was lying down bleeding in a stairwell at an iron factory in Kafr Kanna, near Nazareth. The video seems to show Hakroush leaving the scene without offering assistance. Amara later died of his wounds.According to Haaretz, Hakroush returned to the scene about 10 minutes after leaving, with police already having arrested the suspected murderer. Reports by Israeli media questioned why Hakroush had not taken control of the scene. Israel Police Insp.-Gen. Yaakov Shabtai has opened a commission of inquiry into the incident.Ranin, a worker in the building where the murder took place, told 103FM she was in the building with Hakroush when the crime took place and that Hakroush was in the office with her.“He saw the things through the cameras,” Ranin said. “He asked if there was a need to intervene. I told him that this was a regular conflict. We only saw what was happening in the hall. In the kitchen itself [where the stabbing occurred], there are no cameras, so we saw the clash but not the stabbing that happened in the kitchen.”
Ranin stressed that Hakroush had repeatedly asked if he should intervene and that she convinced him not to. After the stabbing, Hakroush left the building to call for reinforcements, she said.Hakroush “acted like a regular person,” Ranin said. “He called the police and did what needed to be done. You saw what was on the cameras? Everyone was there in front of him. How could he intervene? He could not. There was no room for him.”Hakroush told Channel 13 he was asked not to intervene and that the first thing he did was call the police. “I [took control of] the scene,” Hakroush said. “Every other action I would have done would have been a disruption.”Hakroush’s decision was appropriate, Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev said Monday, adding that the commission of inquiry would continue to investigate the incident.Hakroush was “a pioneer and a figure who allowed Muslim society to dream and dare to strive for the highest ranks in the Israel Police,” he said. “I thank Commander Hakroush for 44 years of public service.”