Nearly three weeks after the fatal stabbing of Yemanu Binyamin Zalka, 16 teenagers were indicted Sunday in connection with his murder on the eve of Independence Day.
The indictments, filed by prosecutors to the Central District Court in Lod, were split into two cases. The first charges the main suspect, a 15-year-old boy identified only as “H,” with murder, with prosecutors alleging that he acted with indifference to the possibility of Zalka’s death.
The second indictment charges 15 other minors, all between the ages of 14 and 16, with aggravated assault with intent to cause serious harm – an offense that carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The suspects were also charged with additional offenses, including obstruction of justice and evidence tampering. The prosecution requested that all of them be remanded until the end of legal proceedings.
The case has drawn widespread shock and prompted renewed discussion about teen violence, both because of the suspects’ young age and because, according to the indictment, the fatal confrontation began over a trivial argument at the Pizza Hut branch where Zalka worked.
Police Commissioner Daniel Levi called the case “a cruel and shocking murder of a young man whose whole life was ahead of him,” adding that Israel Police views all serious violence with severity, “particularly incidents in which teenagers choose to resolve conflicts through unrestrained violence.”
On Saturday night, hours ahead of the planned indictments, dozens gathered outside the prosecution’s offices in Tel Aviv in support of Zalka’s family, demanding that all the teens involved be charged with murder committed jointly, not only the teen accused of carrying out the stabbing.
Yemanu’s sister, Yaros, said at the protest, “Anyone who so much as touched my brother is a murderer, not just the one who stabbed him. The prosecution has not internalized that if the others walk free, they will kill again without hesitation.”
According to the indictment, the teens – all friends, and some of them relatives – met on the evening of Tuesday, April 21, to celebrate Independence Day. At some point, some of the teens began spraying snow spray toward a group of girls, one of whom ran to the nearest shelter: a Pizza Hut branch located in a shopping center on Independence Street in Petah Tikva.
She entered the restaurant covered in snow spray, while three of the boys followed her inside, spraying the shop's floor and counter.
Workers at the restaurant, including Zalka, rebuked them and asked them to leave the premises. Zalka escorted them outside, where an argument broke out.
During the exchange, H allegedly told Zalka, “Come over here if you’re a man, come to where there are no cameras.” Zalka demanded that they leave.
'Cold, calculating nature'
The teens began shouting and cursing at Zalka, while two other workers came out and tried to calm the situation down. According to the indictment, H told the two staffers that Zalka had offended him and threatened to stab him.
He allegedly said that he would “come back at the end of the shift and settle the score with him,” that he would “screw him,” and that he “would be willing to serve time for it.”
The teens left the pizza shop but remained nearby, as more of their friends arrived. About two hours later, at around 1 a.m., Zalka and one of his coworkers walked out and were in the shopping center area near the pizza shop.
At that point, H approached Zalka and resumed the argument.
The group then began crowding around Zalka, prosecutors said, preparing for an attack, including by wrapping sweatshirts around their heads and readying the snow spray cans.
Another teen, identified only as “N,” approached Zalka aggressively, and an intense argument broke out between the two.
When N pushed Zalka to the ground, prosecutors said, “that was the signal that launched the violent attack.”
The rest of the group joined in, punching and kicking Zalka, throwing snow spray cans at his head, and thrusting them toward his back and collarbone.
H, who had been standing off to the side, then ran back toward the circle with a knife in his hand. Zalka noticed and managed to distance himself from the group.
But H noticed as well, approached him, and stabbed him violently, according to the indictment.
Zalka immediately fell to the ground. Even then, the group continued to strike him with their hands and with the spray cans as he tried to protect his head. H, who saw this from nearby, ran off.
At that point, Zalka could no longer lift himself off the ground.
As Zalka lay dying, the group ran away after one of his coworkers urged them to leave him alone, once they realized he would not fight back. The teens did not call emergency services.
Zalka was eventually evacuated to Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva, in critical condition, having lost a massive amount of blood. He died the next day from the fatal stabbing wound at the age of 20.
The prosecution said the cold and calculated nature of the teens’ actions reflected the alarming level of danger in the case.
The Central District Attorney’s Office said it “views the incident and its grave consequences with great severity, and attaches paramount importance to combating the phenomenon of violence among teenagers.”
It added, “Their dangerousness is glaring, after they brutally and viciously attacked the late Zalka, who was stabbed over a trivial matter, when all he sought to do was maintain order at his workplace.
“For the offense of murder, the court has the authority to impose a life sentence on the stabber, while for the other minors, it may impose heavy and significant prison sentences,” it continued. “We will do everything in our power to see that justice is fully served.”
Other than the main defendant, the teens were charged with a series of additional offenses, including aggravated assault with intent to cause serious harm, committed jointly. Three of them were also indicted for obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence.
After the details of the indictment were publicized Sunday morning, Zalka’s family sharply criticized the prosecution’s decision not to charge all the teens with murder.
“The prosecution this morning chose the side of the criminals. Instead of understanding the gravity of the moment and filing indictments with unprecedented charges that would prevent the next murder, they chose to go easy and let Yemanu’s murderers off cheaply,” the family said.
They argued that the suspect had understood exactly what evidence needed to be concealed to reduce his legal exposure, and called the prosecution’s position that there was insufficient evidence “a disgrace.”
They also claimed that, in their view, the evidence showed planning, execution, and premeditated intent to murder.
“But while everyone sees reality clearly, the prosecution chooses to be blind and to enable the next murder,” the family said.