Judge Yaron Levi noted in the verdict that “the defendant’s harm to the protected values is fatal. In the midst of the ‘Swords of Iron’ war, when the Israeli home front was attacked from seven different fronts, the defendant exploited the permit of stay, which he legally held, in order to harm the heart of the civilian population. Once he decided in his heart to murder a Jew and gain the status of a martyr – and this in order to clear his name as a spy in the service of the General Security Service – the defendant purchased a knife and began to patrol the vicinity of his residence. On the day of the murder, the defendant noticed a vulnerable woman,
an elderly woman about 83 years old, and decided to kill her. The defendant lunged at the deceased and brutally stabbed her 11 times, until he was shot. Indeed, the defendant’s actions embody, in all their severity, the cruelty and purposes of terror, such that beyond the abhorrent murder, a message is conveyed to the entire civilian population – a message that no person or place is protected under Israeli sovereignty.”
In its sentencing arguments, the Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office, through Adv. Hadas Forer Gafni, requested a life sentence for Shallhoub and stated that this was a severe and murderous attack. She also noted the fact that “the horrific murder was carried out during wartime, when everyone’s nerves are very frayed, public fears are at their peak, the country is under attack from all directions and fighting for its life. Such a murder in the heart of Herzliya is several times more severe.”
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