Murder of Itamar Ben Gal

On 5 February 2018, Itamar Ben Gal, a 29-year-old rabbi from Har Brakha, was attacked at a bus stop at the Ariel Junction on Highway 5, near the West Bank settlement and city of Ariel. He was stabbed multiple times in the upper body and later died of his injuries.

The attacker is reported to have decided, during an argument with a policeman at a road junction near Ariel, to kill a Jewish person. He then purchased two 27-centimeter knives at a store in Nablus before returning to the junction, where he identified Ben Gal as Jewish because Ben Gal was wearing a kippah. He attacked Ben Gal, who ran from the scene, and the attacker pursued him until he was struck by a passing car, which stopped the chase. The perpetrator then fled the area.

The person identified as responsible for the attack, Abed al-Karim Adel Assi (also referred to as Abd al-Hakim Asi), was a 19-year-old Israeli Arab resident of Jaffa. His parents were reported to be separated, with his father living in Nablus and his mother living in Haifa. He had at one time resided in a home for at-risk youth and had received social services assistance over the years.

Israeli authorities conducted a six-week manhunt for Assi following the attack. During this period, clashes occurred between Israeli forces and Palestinian rioters in the city of Nablus. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that a Palestinian man, Khaled Tayeh, died during these clashes. The manhunt ended with Assi's capture.

Assi was subsequently indicted for murder, with prosecutors charging that he had selected his victim specifically because Ben Gal was Jewish. He was convicted in July 2019.

The case is referenced alongside other violent incidents from the same period in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the killing of Rabbi Raziel Shevah, a 35-year-old father of six, in a drive-by shooting in Havat Gilad in the West Bank on 9 January 2018.