One day after an Arab stabbed to death a young man in East Jerusalem, police found the body of another Israeli shot to death in Petach Tikvah for what also appeared to be nationalist motives.
The victim, identified as Izhar Mantzur, 23, was standing guard at a cable factory. His body, shot several times at close range, was found shortly after 6:30 a.m., just 24 hours after the murder in Jerusalem.
Police said the murderers stole equipment from the plant, but claimed, for reasons they refused to disclose, that the killing was carried out by Arabs acting out of nationalist motivations.
In Jerusalem, angry Jewish residents continued to demand some reaction by the government to Monday’s stabbing murder in the Jerusalem neighborhood of East Talpiyot.
Monday night, hundreds of Talpiyot residents held a torchlight demonstration protesting the murder of Yehezkel Mizrachi and demanded better security measures by the police. Some demonstrators chanted calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The demonstrators were joined by several dozen members of the right-wing extremist Kach movement, who tried to incite an attack on the neighboring Arab village of Jabel Mukaber. However, a thick cordon of police prevented the Kach supporters from causing such a disturbance.
In another development, Israeli security forces on Tuesday captured a Palestinian man charged with commanding a terrorist gang operating out of the West Bank city of Jenin.
The man, identified as Osama Khaled Silawi, 22, is accused of leading the Black Panther cell, affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization’s mainstream Al Fatah faction.
Silawi surrendered after security forces surrounding his house threw a shock grenade into the building. Silawi was in possession of a loaded pistol when he was captured and also revealed the hiding place of an Uzi submachine gun.
Silawi is suspected of having commanded the Fatah cell that murdered an Israeli citizen, Mordechai Biton, while he was shopping in Jenin last October.
Silawi is also accused of involvement in a number of murders and attacks against Palestinians suspected of having collaborated with Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
