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Palestinian indicted over deadly Beit She’an ramming, stabbing attack

Ahmad al-Rub went on a killing spree in northern Israel’s Gilboa region.

Aviv Maor
Aviv Maor, 19, from Kibbutz Ein Harod, was murdered on Dec. 26, 2025, by a Palestinian terrorist from Qabatiya near Jenin. Credit: Courtesy.

Israel’s Northern District Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday indicted a Palestinian terrorist who murdered two Israelis and wounded two others in a series of attacks involving ramming and stabbing in the country’s Gilboa region, the Israel Police said in a statement.

Indictments were also filed against two of the terrorist’s siblings, who entered Israel illegally, and against the terrorist’s employer, an Israeli resident of Arraba in the Lower Galilee.

The charges were submitted to the Nazareth District Court.

Ahmad al-Rub, 37, from the city of Qabatiya near Jenin in northern Samaria, murdered Shimshon Mordechai, 68, and Aviv Maor, 19, in attacks carried out in and around the northern Israeli city of Beit She’an on Dec. 26.

According to the indictment, al-Rub left Arraba around 5:30 a.m. together with his employer and another Palestinian to perform renovation work at a private residence in Kibbutz Mesilot.

At a certain point, the terrorist stole his employer’s vehicle and went on a killing spree, armed with a knife and a screwdriver that he took from the construction site.

In Beit She’an, he ran over and killed Mordechai and wounded a 16-year-old boy in another ramming incident, the police’s statement read.

From Beit She’an, al-Rub headed toward Route 71, and at the Tel Yosef Junction he hit a stationary vehicle, next proceeding toward two young people who were at the location. Catching 18-year-old Maor, he stabbed her numerous times; her death was later pronounced by a medical team that arrived at the scene.

From there he drove to the city of Afula, where he spotted a 37-year-old pedestrian at a junction, veered off the road and rammed into the man, who was wounded and placed in moderate-to-serious condition. A nearby civilian reacted by opening fire at al-Rub, according to the police.

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