In the indictment prepared against the Palestinian school janitor who mercilessly assaulted a 7-year-old chareidi woman, there is no mention of the attack being nationally motivated.

Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan on Monday evening addressed the attack on the child by the Palestinian janitor, calling on investigators in the case to view it as an act of nationalistically motivated terror.

“It is difficult for me and, I am certain that it is difficult for everyone to think about the horrible incident that was published regarding the 7-year-old girl from a community in Binyamin who fell victim to the sickening act, an inhuman and incomprehensible act,” stated the minister during a ceremony for police in Beit Shemesh.

The indictment handed down in the case earlier in the week has no mention of the brutal assault being an act nationalistically motivated. Erdan added, “I have no doubt that the defendant in committing this atrocity and all those who helped him were also fed by the incitement and hatred they absorb in the Palestinian Authority every day. It does not matter what the defendant will say, the incident must be probed as a nationalistic attack, in order to reach those who helped him”.

“I call on the Shin Bet, the police and the State Attorney’s Office to continue to use all means of interrogation to investigate whether the abominable attacker would have acted so even if it was a Palestinian girl, it is despicable and inferior to animals,” he said.

The son of 47-year-old Mahmud Katusa from the village of Dir Qadis, who was indicted, told News13 Monday that he does not believe his father is capable of committing such horrific acts. “We have a good name, all the people in all the villages around us know us and our nobility, we are known as a respected family.”

Another resident of the village told Ynet: “This is a man who cares to support his family, he is an honest man and he does not do nonsense, and he has been under arrest for almost two months.”

According to a report on the news, the girl identified the defendant, Mahmud Nazmi Katusa, and during a conversation with a teacher at the school, he pointed to him: “That is him” she said.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)