Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, paid a condolence call Sunday evening to the family of Ori Ansbacher, the Israeli teenager who was found murdered in a Jerusalem forest last week.
Netanyahu and his wife visited the Ansbacher family at their home in Tekoa, where Rabbi Gadi Ansbacher, his wife Noa, and their four surviving children are observing the traditional ‘shiva’ period of mourning.
During the visit, the Prime Minister updated the family regarding the investigation into their daughter’s murder, including the recently released findings from the Shin Bet’s interrogation of the terrorist, Arafat Arafiah.
Earlier on Sunday, the Shin Bet internal security agency reported that based on the interrogation of Arafiah, it appears that the rape and murder of Ansbacher were committed based on nationalistic motives, and constituted a terrorist attack.
Arafiah confessed to Israeli authorities, admitting that he raped Ansbacher in the Ein Yael forest in south Jerusalem last week, before stabbing her repeatedly in the chest, killing her.
He later reenacted the attack, describing in detail for investigators how he spotted Ansbacher as she walked into the forest, then accosted her, sexually assaulted her, and stabbed her to death.
Ansbacher, a 19-year-old national service volunteer from the town of Tekoa, was found last Thursday night in the Ein Yael forest, after she had been declared missing that morning.
Her remains were found naked, with multiple stab wounds to her upper torso.