Details on the arrest of the Palestinian terrorist suspected of murdering an Israeli woman on 20 December 2020 have now been cleared for publication.
According to a statement from the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) known as the Shin Bet, Muhammad Cabha was captured on 24 December 2020. He was arrested in a joint Shin Bet intelligence and operational mission with the IDF and Israel Police (Samaria and Judea District), including the special anti-terror unit. The suspect is a resident of the Palestinian village of Tura al-Gharbiya near Jenin, who has previously served sentences for terrorist activity.
52-year-old Esther Horgan, and mother-of-six, was killed in what the ISA termed as a “brutal, murderous terrorist attack” while jogging near her home at the Tal Menashe settlement in the Samarian hills on the northwestern edge of the West Bank.
During his interrogation by Shin Bet and Israel Police investigators, Cabha admitted to killing Horgan for nationalist motives and provided additional details about the crime. He confessed to having conspired to commit a terror attack for about six weeks, following the death of convicted Palestinian security inmate Kamal Abu Awar of COVID-19 in an Israeli prison. He waited until spotting a Jewish woman alone in a forest adjacent to Tal Menashe, after breaching Israel’s security barrier in a deliberate search for a remote location. Horgan’s skull was reportedly smashed by a rock wielded by the suspect.
After fleeing the scene, he was hidden by relatives, as well as acquaintances in the village of Dayr al-Ghusun. Four people have been arrested on charges of assisting Cabha’s evasion Israeli security forces.
After conclusion of the ongoing investigation, Cabha will be prosecuted by the Samaria Military Court.
The Shin Bet vowed “to continue to take determined counter-terrorist action” against anyone seeking to harm the nation’s citizens.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended the ISA, Police anti-terror unit and the IDF “for apprehending the reprehensible terrorist who brutally murdered the late Esther Horgan.”
“We will deal with him – and with those who aided him – to the fullest extent of the law,” underscored the Israeli leader, saying, “Let also those who seek our ill know, and they see this time and again, that the long arm of Israel will reach them, everywhere and at all times.”