Police stated that "despite officers saying that this was an illegal protest, the protestors chose to ignore instructions and continue their demonstration."
After assessments at Ben-Gurion airport, a decision was made that there were no security reasons to prevent the terrorist from entry into Israel.
The attacker was a Moroccan citizen with American permanent residency and had entered Israel on a tourist visa on January 18.
Videos of the protest posted to TikTok showed protesters shooting off fireworks above them while waving Palestinian flags.
The man in his twenties was found in a shop in the Old City after messaging his sister that he would carry out an attack that would ‘destroy them’.
Graffiti found on structures, objects, and fences in the neighborhood included antisemitic acronyms and symbols including Nazi swastikas.
Police officers stopped for inspection a suspicious vehicle that had come from the West Bank, after noticing it had red and blue lights at the front.
The operation was carried out jointly by police officers from the Southern District in addition to officers of the Yahalom unit operating under the Israel Tax Authority.
The riot was originally anti-police in nature, making the motives of the synagogue vandals unclear.
Police requested the phones due to suspicions that the family was hiding the phones from the investigation.
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