The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Sunday extended until Thursday the arrest of Arafat Arafiah, the 29-year-old resident of Hevron suspected of murdering teenager Ori Ansbacher in the Ein Yael area of southern Jerusalem.
At the same time, the Jerusalem District Prosecutor's Office filed a statement that it intended to file an indictment against Arafiah for the murder by Thursday.
Police said, "From the moment that the body of 19 year old Ori Ansbacher was found in the Ein Yael area of Jerusalem, a joint investigation team of the Israel Police and the Shin Bet worked to locate every piece of information, finding and evidence that led to the identity of the murder suspect and his arrest by Yamam police fighters. Subsequently many investigative activities were carried out to collect evidence linking the suspect to murder and other offenses."
Channel 12's weekend news quoted the terrorist, who hardly planned anything - other than to bring a kipa (skullcap) in his pocket.
"I bought the kipa two weeks before [the attack], so that I could enter Israel without them suspecting me and so that they would not know I was in Israel illegally," Arafiah told the investigators. He also worked alone and did not inform anyone of the intentions during the weeks leading up to the attack.
"I left my home to murder a Jew, because of the occupation and because of the attitudes towards Arabs at Jerusalem checkpoints," he said.
Arafiah left Hevron hiding a knife in his clothes, and crossed the forest near Ein Yael. The first person he met was Ori Ansbacher, a National Service girl from Teko'a, who was sitting on a rock and writing in a notebook.
"I saw a girl, and told her in Arabic, 'Hi, I'm an Arab.' I saw that she didn't understand me. I told myself - 'I'm going to have her, whether she consents or not,'" he said.
At that point he pulled out a knife, stabbed her three times, and dragged her by her hands 150 meters (164 yards) away. Ori tried to fight and even yelled, but other than the two of them, there was no one around. He stabbed her another few times, gagged her with the scarf she was wearing, and after he bound her hands with a belt he raped her and escaped the scene - but not before he took her mobile phone, pulled out the SIM card, and threw it under a rock.
At that point, Arafiah returned to Bethlehem in a taxi which took him to the Ramallah-area Al-Bireh. Nothing about his escape route was planned: After he hid the knife, which was later found among bags of cement near the mosque he was hiding in, he was found by Israeli counter-terrorism officers.