Palestinian charged with attempted murder for hotel attack near Jerusalem

Israel’s State Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment with the Jerusalem District Court on Monday against Muhammed Hassan, a Palestinian who allegedly stabbed two men earlier this month in a hotel dining room at Kibbutz Tzuba, west of Jerusalem.

“The defendant turned a family recreation site into a scene of terror,” said Attorney Shai Etzion from the Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office, according to outlet Ynet.

Hassan, 42, is charged with attempted murder in an act of terror.

The suspect, a resident of Shuafat in northeastern Jerusalem, worked at the hotel through a manpower company.

According to the indictment, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen, entered the dining room that hosted about 200 guests, and stabbed two of them in the chest.

Guests on site managed to subdue him until an off-duty police officer arrested him.

“To minimize the risk to remaining civilians, I subdued the terrorist using only physical force, not gunfire,” the officer said at the time. “With the help of some others, we managed to pin him to the ground and put him in handcuffs.”

Two men who participated in subduing the assailant said they had tied him up with belts.

Hassan “sought to kill innocent people solely because of their identity. The prosecution will act to see justice fully served against him as part of the fight against terrorism,” Ynet cited Attorney Etzion as saying.

The prosecution requested to extend the defendant’s detention until the end of the legal proceedings.

Following the terror attack, the Israel Police, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), undercover officers and Border Police fighters raided Hassan’s home in the Shuafat refugee camp, according to Ynet.

His brother was arrested and another suspect who tried to flee the scene was shot and evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment, the report added.