Solved case · 2018
Also known as Ariel attack · 2018 Ariel attack
The short answer
On 5 February 2018, 29-year-old rabbi Itamar Ben Gal was fatally stabbed multiple times at a bus stop near the Ariel Junction in the West Bank. The assailant fled and was captured after a six-week manhunt; a Palestinian man died during related clashes with Israeli forces in Nablus, and the perpetrator was later indicted and convicted of murder.
No one's coverage is attached to this file yet.
Know great coverage of this case?
A documentary, a podcast episode, a careful long-form video. Suggest it and an editor will review it before it appears here.
Suggest coverage for Murder of Itamar Ben GalOn 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.
Rabbi Raziel Shevah is killed in a drive-by shooting in Havat Gilad, West Bank (related incident referenced in the case).
Itamar Ben Gal is stabbed multiple times at a bus stop at the Ariel Junction and later dies of his injuries.
A six-week manhunt for the perpetrator, Abed al-Karim Adel Assi, concludes with his capture.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
29-year-old rabbi from Har Brakha, fatally stabbed at the Ariel Junction on 5 February 2018.[3]
Palestinian man reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry to have died during clashes with Israeli forces in Nablus during the manhunt.[3]
19-year-old Israeli Arab resident of Jaffa; indicted for murder and charged with selecting his victim because he was Jewish; convicted.[3]
From the record
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
Are you family of someone named in this file? Corrections and removal requests from victims’ families are prioritized.
ONGOINGListenNear Tapuah Junction, West Bank · 2010s
Aisha al-Rabi, a 47-year-old Palestinian woman, was killed on October 12, 2018, when settlers hurled rocks at her family's car near the Tapuah Junction in the northern West Bank, one of which crushed her skull. A minor was later indicted on manslaughter and terrorism-related charges; as of May 2020, his trial had not begun.
Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit photographerCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenHuwara, West Bank · 2020s
On 26 February 2023, an unidentified gunman later identified as Hamas operative Abdel Fattah Hussein Kharousha allegedly shot and killed two Israeli brothers, Hillel Menachem Yaniv and Yagel Ya'acov Yaniv, in their car in Huwara in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, triggering a night of revenge attacks by Israeli settlers that killed one Palestinian and injured around 100 others.
SOLVEDListenKfar Qasim, Israel · 2010s
Reuven Shmerling, a 70-year-old man from Elkana, was stabbed and beaten to death on October 4, 2017, in a warehouse in Kfar Qasim, Israel. Two Palestinian men who had entered Israel illegally and were working for his son were indicted for the murder, which was classified as a terror attack.
Credit: English WikipediaEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenDelta, Fulton County, Ohio · 2016
Sierah Joughin, a 20-year-old Ohio college student, was abducted while bicycling home in Fulton County on July 19, 2016, and found dead three days later. James Dean Worley, a neighbor with a 1990 abduction conviction who was not listed in any offender database, was convicted of her murder in 2018 and sentenced to death, prompting Ohio's Sierah's Law, which created a searchable violent-offender registry.
Credit: Via WikipediaEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenMonon High Bridge Trail, Delphi Historic Trails, Delphi, Indiana · 2010s
Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, were murdered on February 13, 2017, while hiking the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Indiana. The case went unsolved for over five years until Richard M. Allen was arrested in October 2022, convicted in November 2024, and sentenced to 130 years in prison.
Credit: English WikipediaEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenStar City, West Virginia (disappearance site); body found in Wayne Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania · 2012
Sixteen-year-old Skylar Neese disappeared from her Star City, West Virginia home in July 2012 and was found murdered months later. Two of her high school best friends, Rachel Shoaf and Shelia Eddy, pleaded guilty to killing her in a premeditated stabbing attack.
