Israel’s Ofer Military Court indicted a Palestinian man on Sunday for the aggravated rape, assault and kidnapping of a 7-year-old Jewish girl.
According to the indictment, the suspect—a janitor at a school in the Binyamin region of Judea and Samaria—met the girl at the school and groomed her for a long period, occasionally speaking to her and giving her candy.
On the day in question, the suspect took the girl by the hand and forcefully led her to a nearby house, where he brutally raped her. After the act, the suspect released the girl.
A police statement said that they would investigate and use “all the means at our disposal to quickly apprehend and bring to justice sex offenders who harm innocent children, and bring to bear all evidence leading to their punishment to the full extent of the law.”
Attorney Haim Bleicher, who represents the family, issued a statement calling the attack “exceedingly brutal and appalling,” and “an act of pure hatred,” claiming it was nationalistically motivated.
This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.