Improvised firearm (illustrative)
Improvised firearm (illustrative)Spokesperson

An investigation conducted by Israel Police along with Shabak officers has solved a serious case involving a shooting attack that occurred in a public park in Bat Yam last November.

The four victims of the attack were two Arab men (one aged 24 and the other 27) and two Jewish women aged 19 and 20, from Tel Aviv.

According to police, the attack occurred at around three o’clock in the morning, when the four victims were sitting in a public park in Bat Yam and chatting. Three men and a women passed by, heard the four people talking in Arabic, and asked them if everything was okay. Told that they were fine, the four suspects left the scene.

A few minutes passed and three of the original four passers-by returned and started to attack the four people sitting in the park, using an improvised firearm and other weapons. The 20-year-old girl from Tel Aviv suffered a gunshot wound.

The investigation led to an assumption that the attack was nationalistically motivated. An undercover investigation spanning the last two months made extensive use of technological and intelligence tools, and at the beginning of January, three suspects were arrested: a 20-year-old woman and two men aged 22 and 24, all residents of Bat Yam. During a search of their homes, an improvised firearm was found. Last week, police arrested the fourth suspect, a 21-year-old resident of Bat Yam, and also recovered a Carl Gustav sub-machine gun.

The detentions of the four have been extended several times and on Tuesday, a prosecutor’s statement was filed. Their detention has now been extended yet again, until Friday, in order to provide sufficient time to issue an indictment which will accuse three of the four suspects of serious offenses including attempted murder. The fourth suspect will probably be ordered to appear at a hearing before an indictment is issued.