36-year-old Mother of Five Found Dead at Construction Site in Central Israel

A 36-year-old woman was found dead on Friday at a construction site in central Israel and police have detained a man suspected of being connected to the incident.

The victim was identified as Fatma Cattaui, a mother of five from Zemer, a regional council located in the so-called “Little Triangle” of Arab towns bordering the West Bank.

Cattaui’s body was found at a construction site in the nearby town of Tel Mond. Later on Friday, police announced they have detained a man in his 40s “as part of the investigation of the circumstances of Cattaui’s death.”

On Saturday, police asked a court to order that the suspect will remain in custody until Wednesday. The suspect's attorney, Yossi Ashkenazi, told Haaretz that his client "denies any suspicion attributed to him by the police. We claim that a work related accident occurred at the scene, and he has nothing to do with it."

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Earlier on Friday, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed and moderately to severely injured in the predominantly Arab city of Baka al-Garbiyeh, also in the Triangle region bordering the West Bank. The boy was taken to Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Hadera.

The police have begun investigating the incident and are searching for suspects in the attack.

A Magen David Adom paramedic who was at the scene of the incident said "There was a lot of commotion at the scene," adding that "the wounded boy, who was fully conscious, suffered penetrating injuries to his body."

According to a count by Haaretz, at least 88 people have been killed by violence in Israel’s Arab community since the beginning of the year, ten of them women. Last year, 104 people were murdered within the same period.