A prominent Netanya rabbi was stabbed to death early Wednesday inside his religious study hall, Israel Police said.
Rabbi Amos Guetta, 75, was critically wounded in the attack at his kollel in the Israeli coastal city shortly before 5:45 a.m. Magen David Adom paramedics performed resuscitation efforts while evacuating him to Sanz Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Police said they arrested a suspect, a Netanya resident in his 20s, about two hours later in the city center. According to a preliminary investigation, the suspect was part of Guetta’s religious circle and had studied under him.
Investigators believe the suspect came to pray with the rabbi before an argument broke out. He then allegedly stabbed Guetta several times while he was in bed and attempted to stab the rabbi’s assistant before fleeing. Police said the incident appeared to be criminal in nature and that the suspect may suffer from mental illness.
The Shas Party mourned Guetta as “the rabbi of Libyan Jewry” and head of the Rabbi Yitzhak Chai Taib yeshivah in Netanya.
Guetta was widely known in Netanya as a spiritual leader, Torah scholar and kabbalist who helped many people return to religious observance. Members of the Libyan Jewish community also regularly sought his guidance.
Netanya Mayor Avi Salama said, “Rabbi Amos was a great Torah scholar, a beacon of light and a pillar of Torah study and kindness in Netanya.”
