An indictment is to be filed against a Border Police officer who shot and killed his friend last week, IDF soldier Yosef Chaim Rabuch. The charge is expected to be manslaughter. His detention was extended today by seven days in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court. In the hearing, a representative from the Police Internal Investigations Department (Machash) said the suspect provided a “very puzzling” account in his interrogation — one that does not align with the evidence.
According to the Machash representative, on the eve of Sukkot Rabuch arrived with his fiancée, Roni, to visit the suspect at his home. “At this point the suspect opened the door and shot toward the victim’s body, who was critically wounded and died shortly afterward,” he said. He added that the investigation has revealed a “particularly bleak picture,” in which the suspect’s version is not only detached from the evidentiary material — but plainly false.
The Machash representative also noted that the officer’s version is contradicted by testimony from those present at the scene — including Roni, the victim’s fiancée. In a search of the suspect’s phone, media content was found that “attests to additional offenses and underpins his serious dangerousness.” The representative added that “the suspect did not call for help, did not summon Magen David Adom (Israel’s ambulance service), but instead went into his room and made many phone calls. To the policemen he said: ‘I’m stupid, I’m an idiot, a foolish spirit seized me, arrest me’ — and did not speak at all of imagined anxieties or terrorists.”
Machash requested an additional eight‑day extension of the officer’s detention for ongoing investigative actions, summarizing: “The officer is a person who acts with recklessness. The warning signs were visible from previous incidents. That same person had handled a firearm in the past. He made many phone calls, always saying, ‘I made a mistake — why does this always happen to me?’ He never raised the concern of a terrorist threat.”
According to preliminary investigative findings, Rabuch and the officer were close friends, and that evening they were supposed to go out together. At first it was thought to be an accidental discharge in a “gun demonstration,” but according to testimony and the officer’s initial account, the shooting occurred after the soldier made a finger‑gun gesture toward him — apparently in jest. The officer, who according to associates suffered a serious trauma a few months ago, responded with gunfire — seemingly from a long weapon rather than a pistol.
Initially, the suspect’s detention was extended for six days. As noted, it was extended again today. In the Tuesday hearing, the Machash representative said, “He gave a puzzling, convoluted version, and refused to provide the passcode to his mobile phone.”
Rabuch was the son of Rabbi Eliyahu and Rachel Rabuch. He lived in Kiryat Arba, studied at the Amit religious‑technological high school in Jerusalem and was a member of Israel’s national youth taekwondo team. He won the title of national youth champion, and later served as a coach at a club in Kiryat Arba.
On Wednesday, Rabuch’s family made an unusual request to Machash to release the officer from custody for the funeral so “they could be together in the final moments” — but it was denied. In addition, ynet reported that the father of the deceased soldier and the father of the suspect had spoken, and in that same conversation the father of Yosef said: “I forgive, I absolve.”
“He made a mistake, not intentionally. He suffered trauma — and any fear he has stems from his role, he knows how to defend himself. Could he intentionally kill his childhood friend?” wondered the officer’s father. The soldier’s father, he said, told him he loves the suspect officer “as his own son.” “We both cried like little children. He told me: ‘We will deal with this together.’ What nobility of spirit.”