Lieberman: Barkan terrorist's time is running out
In meeting with elite Duvdevan unit, defense minister asserts that Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na'alwa will be soon captured; PM Netanyahu expects 'it won't take long before this despicable perpetrator is apprehended.'
Lieberman met with the mistaravim of the elite Duvdevan unit who in cooperation with IDF and Shin Bet forces are conducting a manhunt to apprehend 23-year-old Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na'alwa who shot dead Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, 28, from Rosh HaAyin and Ziv Hagbi, 35, from Rishon LeZion.
"The terrorist's time is running out," Lieberman asserted.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed optimism about the chances of capturing the terrorist.
"From the report I've received this morning, I expect it won't take long before this despicable perpetrator is apprehended.
"Words cannot describe his cruelty. There should be no doubt—we will find him (and bring him to justice). This is our top priority at the moment," the premier added.
"On Sunday we lost Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hagbi in an awful terror attack. This contemptible terrorist sought to kill Jews and to shatter the relation between Israelis and Palestinians working side by side at the Barkan industrial area," Netanyahu elaborated.
"I have faith in our security forces who are doing everything possible to locate the assassin, and they will.
"We will forever have Kim and Ziv in our thoughts," he concluded.
IDF and Shin Bet forces are conducting extensive searches in the terrorist's village of Shweika near Tulkarem. The forces mapped the terrorist's house and arrested suspects in assisting him to carry out the attack.
Security cameras recorded Na'alwa escaping the scene of the crime armed with an M-16 assault rifle.
None of the terror organizations assumed responsibly for the attack, prompting the defense establishment to address it as a lone wolf attack.
A Palestinian security official told Ynet that the Palestinian forces are assisting in the searches for the terrorist due to an IDF assessment that the perpetrator would option to surrender to the local security rather than the Israeli one.
“The assessment is that the terrorist will prefer to surrender himself to Palestinian security in order to escape possible death during an arrest attempt or out of belief that the Palestinian Authority would struggle to extradite him to Israel," stressed the source.
“There is full coordination between the security forces when it comes to the manhunt for the terrorist who carried out the Barkan attack.
The information gathered at this stage is supposed to assist in tracing the terrorist’s movements from the moment of the incident to his current whereabouts,” he concluded.
On Monday, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC) reported that the terrorist forced a cleaner at gunpoint to handcuff one of the victims.
Levengrond Yehezkel's body was found with her hands bound by cable tie, which the terrorist took several minutes before the attack from the storeroom of the Alon Group's recycling factory, where the attack took place.
Defense officials told the IPBC that Na'alwa threatened to shoot the clearer, who was at the scene of the attack by chance, if he did not tie up the victim.
The Shin Bet released the cleaner, after his questioning showed he was not involved in any way in the attack.
Meanwhile, The Israeli mission to the UN, headed by envoy Danny Danon, presented the photos of the two victims at the UN, after the organization remained silent for two days, without condemning the killings.
"The UN has yet to voice its condemnation of the brutal killings. Nevertheless, we will continue remembering and reminding the world the lives that were taken, the hatred and incitement," Danon tweeted.
