Ashraf Na’alowa, the 23-year-old Palestinian who murdered young parents Kim Levengrond-Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi at the Barkan Industrial Park in October, was found and killed by IDF forces early Thursday, following a two-month regional manhunt. Both the terrorist and the victims worked at the complex, which employs thousands of Israelis and Palestinians.
The killer had been assisted in hiding by a number of relatives and accomplices who have been arrested in a joint operation between Israel’s Shin Bet security services, IDF forces and Israeli police.
According to the IDF, Na’alowa’s father knew his son was preparing and training to commit a terror attack for weeks.
The Shin Bet said Na’alowa was planning to conduct a second terror attack.
Security services said Na’alowa was armed when troops arrived to arrest him in Nablus, more than 30 miles from his home near Tulkarm.
Na’alowa was killed just hours after Israeli forces eliminated Salih Omar Barghouti, the 29-year-old terrorist living near Ramallah, who shot seven Israelis waiting at a bus stop in Ofra on Sunday night, including severely injuring Shira Ish-Ran, who was 30-weeks pregnant.
The baby boy was delivered immediately after the attack at the hospital, with Ish-Ran in critical condition. He died on Wednesday and was buried that night at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem.
Hamas later claimed Barghouti as a member, calling his attack on the Ofra bus stop “heroic.”
