Police and the Shin Bet (ISA) on Saturday arrested the two brothers of the terrorist who carried out a double terror attack in northern Israel on Friday.
The attack left 19-year-old Aviv Maor and 69-year-old Shimshon Mordechai dead, and a teenage boy injured.
The terrorist's two brothers, both illegal residents aged 30 and 33, were apprehended in an agricultural structure near the community of Arraba.
The terrorist himself was released from the hospital and transferred to the ISA for interrogation.
Earlier, a military official said that the terrorist is a “chronic illegal resident.” According to the official, this refers to someone who has worked in Israel for many years and, in this case, also worked under an Israeli Arab contractor.
“Yesterday morning he went to work on the railways, took the contractor’s vehicle, and set out to carry out the terror attack. He entered Israel with a vehicle through one of the crossings in the Jerusalem area six days ago and remained in Israel.”
The official clarified that “this incident shines a spotlight on the entire phenomenon of illegal residents. This situation where people employ illegal residents without knowing who they are, and then wake up to an incident like this, is irresponsibility of the highest order. We have tens of thousands of illegal residents here. This is not a terrorist who crossed the seam line yesterday morning.”
According to the official, the terrorist’s last visit to Qabatiya was approximately a week ago. The IDF has imposed a curfew and encirclement on Qabatiya. The terrorist, 34, had no serious prior security offenses and had worked in Israel for years.
“The terrorist entered via the Jerusalem envelope by vehicle, and we know he passed there six days ago. From Qabatiya he traveled to the Jerusalem envelope,” he said.
“Those who decide on the permits are not the IDF, but the government,” he said. “Today there are entry permits for only 8,000 Palestinians who can work inside Israel, and another 13,000 who work in the settlements. There are tens of thousands of illegal residents in Israel - about fifty thousand.”
The official added that “this is a challenging and complex mission, as it involves more than 600 kilometers of fencing.” However, he noted that the terrorist “left our sector and passed through Jerusalem, which is under police responsibility. In areas without a fence there is IDF activity and monitoring. Rules of engagement have been tightened, operations are underway, and arrest protocol for anyone attempting to cross. We have struck a significant number of infiltrators who did not stop; some were even killed when they failed to halt, but the seam line is not hermetically sealed.”
He said: “There are currently 23 battalions along the seam line, roughly 50% reservists. When the barrier is so long, it’s not always possible to arrive in time even when there are alerts about infiltrators attempting to cross the fence.”
“We are all scarred by October 7,” the military official said. “We work every day to reduce threats and prevent phenomena that could lead us there. We live this reality in the Central Command. The seam line is a complex mission. The ability to carry out terrorist activity with the broad support we saw in Gaza is more difficult. We are operating deep in the field.”