Charge sheet against 16-year-old Palestinian, accused of murdering mother of six with knife, provides chilling details of the attack

The family of Dafna Meir at her funeral in Jerusalem on January 18, 2106. Meir was stabbed to death at the entrance to her home in the settlement of Otniel on January 17. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The family of Dafna Meir at her funeral in Jerusalem on January 18, 2106. Meir was stabbed to death at the entrance to her home in the settlement of Otniel on January 17. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

 

On January 17, Morad Bader Abdullah Adais went into his kitchen, took a knife that his family used for cutting meat and decided to use it to kill Jews, according to the indictment filed against him Monday.

Earlier that day, the 16-year-old had been watching Palestinian television, notably the “Falastin” and “Ma’an” networks, and videos posted on Facebook, which described Israeli soldiers as murderers who “disgraced young Palestinian women,” Adais told his Shin Bet security service interrogators.

At approximately four o’clock in the afternoon, Adais took the six-inch (14-centimeter) knife from his kitchen and set out for Otniel, where he planned to kill residents and eventually “die a holy death as a martyr.”

According to the indictment, he then climbed the fence into the Otniel settlement and began searching for a victim.

A short time later, Adais spotted Dafna Meir, a 39-year-old biological mother of four and foster mother to two. Meir, a nurse at Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center, was speaking on the phone in her house.

Meir, as a religious woman, had her hair covered and was clearly identifiable as a Jewish resident of the West Bank settlement.

Morad Bader Abdullah Adais, arrested for the January 17, 2016 killing of Dafna Meir. (Courtesy)
Morad Bader Abdullah Adais, arrested for the January 17, 2016 killing of Dafna Meir. (Courtesy)

After a few minutes, Meir hung up the phone and handed the device to one of her children. As she walked outside, Adais ran at her with the knife in his hand.

Adais plunged the knife into her stomach in the doorway to her family’s home. Meir a
nd her children began screaming as she grappled with the terrorist, trying to push him out of the house and away from her and her kids, the indictment said.

But Adais overpowered the mother of six. He stabbed Meir a number of times in the upper body before finally stabbing her in the head, above her right eye, according to the charges against him.

Adais tried to remove the knife in order to continue his rampage, but was unable to do so. He fled the scene, as Meir lay on the floor of her kitchen bleeding to death.

Dafna Meir, left, with her husband Natan Meir in an undated picture posted on Facebook. (Screen capture: Facebook)
Dafna Meir, left, with her husband Natan Meir in an undated picture posted on Facebook. (Screen capture: Facebook)

When Adais returned home, he “realized that he had blood on his left hand, and washed it off. Afterwards, he sat down to watch a movie with his family,” according to the indictment.

Two days later, on January 19, soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite Duvdevan Unit arrested Adais in the nearby village of Beit Amra. He was handed over to the Shin Bet for questioning. There he confessed to the murder and provided many of the details in the case.

In addition to the crime of murder, Adais has been charged with illegally carrying a knife.

As reported by The Times of Israel