Holon, Rahat stabbings highlight Israeli femicide uptick

Israel Police arrested a Holon resident suspected of stabbing his partner and seriously wounding her Monday night.

The arrest follows a police investigation that was opened earlier this month after the victim, a woman in her 30s, was taken to Kaplan Medical Center in serious condition.

The suspect was arrested in the North, after he fled the scene and evaded police forces, the police said. Police will ask to extend his arrest at a hearing on Tuesday.

The attack was triggered by the woman wanting to break up with her partner, according to Maariv.

The arrest follows another arrest made Monday of a resident of Rahat in his 20s who is suspected of stabbing his wife to death.

Cases of femicide, the killing of a woman because she is a woman, have increased since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, according to Hebrew University’s Israel Observatory on Femicide (IOF).

Some 11 women have been killed in femicide cases in 2024 so far, Prof. Shalva Weil, founder and head of the IOF, said.

Impact of Oct 7 

One-third of all femicides in 2023 took place after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, said the observatory.

This figure did not include women murdered on October 7. While some of the murders of the Hamas attack on Israel were gender-based, “in that women were targeted as women, and underwent sexual violence prior to their murder,” the IOF said, because of the limited ability of the observatory to collect evidence from that day, their deaths were not included in the 2023 report.

Over half of the victims of femicide in 2023 were stabbed to death, while 18% were shot, said the IOF. 

The IOF called to eradicate femicide, which they say is the most extreme case of violence against women.