Jerusalem, Oct 29 (AFP) Israeli prosecutors filed chargestoday against two Palestinians suspected of murdering theirJewish employer this month in what authorities have labelled a"terror attack", the justice ministry said.
According to the indictment, Yousef Kamil, 20, andMohammed Abu Elrob, 19, both of Qabatiya in the occupied WestBank, murdered Reuven Schmerling in a premeditated attack attheir workplace in the Arab Israeli city of Kafr Qasem onOctober 4.
Schmerling, 70 and who lived in the nearby Israelisettlement of Elkana in the West Bank, was stabbed and beatento death by the two in his coal warehouse, prosecutors say.
According to the charges, the two had decided to "carryout an attack for nationalistic reasons and cause the death ofJews".
They were seeking revenge over the death of a friend in2015, who was shot dead while attempting an attack,prosecutors said.
They were also motivated by "the events on the TempleMount", the Jewish name for the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, theShin Bet domestic security agency said.
The flashpoint holy site in annexed east Jerusalem wasthe scene of heightened tensions in July after three ArabIsraelis shot dead two policemen nearby.
The attack prompted Israel to install new securitymeasures at the entrance to the holy site, leading to deadlyunrest. The security measures were later removed.
Palestinians viewed the new security measures as Israelasserting further control over the site.
The suspects decided that Schmerling would be theirvictim because of "anger towards him stemming from their workrelations", the indictment read.
After stabbing Schmerling and beating him to death with afan and a pickaxe in his warehouse, Kamil and Abu Elrobshowered and took a taxi back to Qabatiya, the charge sheetread.
A wave of unrest that erupted in October 2015 has claimedthe lives of at least 295 Palestinians or Arab Israelis, 51Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, aSudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP toll.
However, the violence has largely subsided in recentmonths.
Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians killedwere carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.
Others were shot dead in protests and clashes, while somewere killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. (AFP)DPB.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.
