Israel’s Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court agreed on Thursday to release to house arrest four of the five Israeli suspects in the October murder of a Palestinian woman.
The court ordered that the fifth suspect remain in Shin Bet custody for another six days.
The Shin Bet as well as the lawyers representing the teens confirmed the ruling which was made behind closed doors.
“We of course are happy about [the police’s request] but we will demand an investigation into how the Shin Bet reached such a situation in which it so harshly investigated innocent individuals while completely ignoring their cries as well as the cries of their families and attorneys” said lawyer Hay Haber who accused the security agency of violently interrogating his clients.
On Sunday the Shin Bet partially lifted a gag order on the case and announced that it had arrested the five students from the Pri Haaretz yeshiva in the Rehelim settlement on suspicion of involvement in the killing of Aisha al-Rabi a 47-year-old Palestinian mother of eight.
Aisha was struck on the head by a large rock on the evening of October 12 as she traveled by car to her West Bank home with her husband and daughter. She was pronounced dead at a Nablus hospital a short time later.
Rabi’s husband who was driving the targeted vehicle said he heard a small group of Hebrew speakers at the scene shortly after the rock was thrown.
Israeli investigations into settler terrorism are rarely conducted. Left-wing activists have accused authorities of dragging their feet in such cases in comparison to investigations into Palestinian anti-occupation attacks.
