Israeli Man Sentenced to Life for Murdering Neighbor

A man was sentenced to life on Sunday for the 2016 murder of his neighbor in Shfaram. The motive is still unknown.

The Haifa District Court also sentenced Ashraf Tahimer to an extra four and a half years for assaulting and injuring a minor and ordered him to pay the victim’s family 258,000 shekels ($74,000) in compensation.

Tahimer killed Mirwat Abu Jalil, a mother of four, in front of her 11-year-old son. The court found that he entered her Shfaram home, took a large knife out of a kitchen drawer, went up to her bedroom and stabbed her in the neck while she was sleeping.

She woke up and pushed him away, injuring him in the ankle, but he fought back against her. Her 18-year-old son, who was sleeping in the next room, heard Abu Jalil's screams and rushed into the room. He struck Tahimer in the face, and Tahimer tried to stab him as well, and then fled the scene. He was arrested a few hours later.

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Tahimer’s actions were “exceptionally cruel and violent,” the judges wrote. Moreover, they said, he has not taken responsibility for his actions or made any attempt to compensate the victims. The verdict noted that he had 37 prior convictions, most for violent crime.

As for the children, “they were attacked in a place that should have been their castle and their refuge, but instead became a killing field,” the ruling said.