Hitman serving murder sentence shot dead at bus stop

Eyal Hayeb, 37, a rehabilitation prisoner serving an 18-year sentence for murder, was shot dead Friday morning at a bus stop on Route 65 near Tzalmon Prison. Hayeb held a permit from the Israel Prison Service allowing him to leave for work at a rehabilitation factory and return to prison each day. He was killed while traveling to his workplace in northern Israel.

Israel Police said the motive appears to be criminal and the circumstances are under investigation. The shooting was reported to MDA's 101 emergency center in the Jordan Valley district at 6:41 a.m. MDA teams arriving at the scene found Hayeb unconscious and suffering from penetrating wounds to his body.

MDA paramedic Fadi Othman described the scene: "When we arrived we saw the wounded man lying on the sidewalk near the bus stop, unconscious and suffering from penetrating wounds to his body. A civilian who was at the scene had begun performing CPR under the guidance of MDA's 101 center, and we continued the resuscitation efforts, but his injury was critical and in the end we had no choice but to pronounce him dead."

The Israel Prison Service confirmed that Hayeb was a rehabilitation prisoner and said that "from an initial clarification of the circumstances of the incident, it appears that the prisoner was on his way to the rehabilitation factory where he works. The investigation continues by Israel Police."

Hayeb had been serving his sentence since 2015 for murder. In 2017, the Haifa District Court ruled that Ahmad Fathi and Ibrahim Hasarmeh hired Hayeb's services for 150,000 shekels to shoot Hasarmeh's husband and cause him serious injury.

According to the verdict, on July 17, 2014, one day before the fatal shooting, the two showed Hayeb where the victim worked and where he should wait for him. On the day of the shooting, Hayeb received a pistol from Ahmad Fathi that had been supplied by Ahmad Hasarmeh, along with gloves and a mask. Hayeb ambushed the victim and fired two shots at him; one struck his neck and caused his death from blood loss.

Hayeb then updated Fathi that he had carried out the mission and received 30,000 shekels as a down payment on the promised fee. Hayeb was convicted of manslaughter, during the period before the reform of homicide offenses.

Night of violence across Israel

The shooting of Hayeb followed a violent night across Israel that included three murder victims, six critically wounded and at least three in moderate condition, in a series of shooting and stabbing incidents.

In Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a man around 35 from Qalansawe was murdered and four others were wounded, three of them critically. In Tamra, Yosef Hamad, 22, was murdered and another man was wounded moderately.

In Qalansawe, a 38-year-old man was critically wounded by gunfire, and in Hadera a 24-year-old man was critically wounded in a stabbing. In Kafr Qasim a man was wounded by gunfire in moderate to serious condition, in Holon a man was wounded moderately by gunfire, and in Nazareth a man around 45 was critically wounded by gunfire.

Police said the motive for the incidents was criminal. In Baqa al-Gharbiyye, searches were conducted for suspects, during which weapons and ammunition were seized. Since the beginning of the year, 197 people have been murdered in Arab society.