A Palestinian terrorist on Sunday confessed to raping and fatally stabbing an Israeli teenager in February 2019 after calling his mother from a courtroom.
Twenty-nine-year-old Hebron resident, Arafat Irfayia, admitted to sexually assaulting and killing 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher, whose body was found with multiple stab wounds in the woods of Ein Yael, on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Irfayia's defense attorney said at the start of the hearing that his client was unwilling to cooperate with him until he was allowed a phone call with his mother. The court granted the request - and immediately after speaking to his mother, the defendant pled guilty to the charges.
During a hearing in December, Irfayia's attorney said that his client confessed to murdering Ansbacher and having sex with her against her will, but when time came to confess in court, the defendant kept silent.
Irfayia was indicted in March 2019 for charges of terrorism, rape, and unlawful entry to Israel.
According to the indictment bill, the evidence against Irfayia includes his DNA that was found at the scene, the knife used by him, Ansbacher's sim card that was found on the defendant, and the cellphone of the deceased that was found in a nearby ditch.
"Irfayia noticed Ori and decided to kill her for being Jewish," the indictment read. "He violently attacked Ori with much cruelty. Ori fought him, but the defendant overcame her, severely wounding her, and stabbed her multiple times all over her body with the knife. The stabbing caused her death."
The Shin Bet domestic security service said in May last year that the motive behind Ansbacher's murder was nationalistic. Irfayia reenacted the murder and Shin Bet officials said that he clearly connected himself to the event.
The Hebron native hails from a family strongly affiliated with Hamas and was staying illegally in Israel in search of a job. He was known to defense authorities beforehand and was previously imprisoned in Israel for minor terror offenses, including dissemination of inciteful content.