Police made a grisly discovery on Wednesday in the northern town of Tiberias near the Sea of Galilee.
A woman in her 30s was found decapitated in the northern town shortly after a fire was reported in her apartment.
Police say a man covered in blood was arrested near the scene. Authorities have identified the suspect as the victim’s ex-husband.
Witnesses say the suspect carried the victim’s severed head down the street, yelling that he had “killed Amalek”, before throwing the head away in a garbage can.
“People saw him wandering around holding his wife’s head while trying to light her hair on fire,” said Naftali Terblasi, a writer for Radio Kol Rega. “They asked him what happened, and he said that he murdered his wife.”
The suspect then reportedly returned to his ex-wife’s home and proceeded to set the apartment on fire.
“It was a terrible sight,” said MDA paramedic Taleb Abdallah. “We found a woman in her 30s and were forced to pronounce her dead at the scene.”
A firefighting unit was dispatched to the scene to put out the blaze and evacuate residents endangered by the fire.
Neighbors say the suspect has a history of mental illness.