Israel’s Shin Bet on Monday identified the main suspect in the murder of Esther Horgen last month near Tel Menashe as 40-year-old Muhammad Mruh Kabha.

Kabha said that he committed the grisly crime to “avenge” the death of a former fellow security prisoner who died of cancer and the coronavirus six weeks ago, among other nationalistic motives.

Kabha, a resident of the village of Tura al-Gharbiya near Jenin, has served prison sentences in the past in Israeli jails for terror-related crimes. He told the Shin Bet that he had decided to carry out the attack about a month and a half before it took place, following the death of the prisoner.

He was aware of a breach in Israel’s security fence in the Reihan forest outside Tel Menashe because he had used it in the past to smuggle cigarettes into Israel. Six weeks before the murder, he checked out the area and determined that Israeli citizens pass through and there is only light traffic and decided it would be an appropriate place for the terror attack.

Last month, he spotted Horgen walking alone in the forest and brutally murdered her in cold blood. He then fled the scene of the crime and hid out with the help of friends and relatives from Dayr al-Ghusun as Israeli security forces searched for him.

Four days later he was arrested along with four others suspected of aiding him in hiding from security services, including his two wives.

Kabha’s name was barred from publication until now following a court-issued gag order. The investigation is ongoing and Kabha will stand trial at the Samaria Military Court when the investigation is complete.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)