The Israeli police said Tuesday that terror was the likely motive behind the shocking murder of an elderly woman in central Israel earlier in the day.
The 84-year old woman was found dead on a street in Holon in the afternoon hours, with wounds on her body.
The CCTV footage showed she was violently attacked by an unidentified man who then fled the scene.
He was wearing black and had stood near a construction site where Palestinians were working. As she passed by, just meters from her home, he suddenly attacked her.
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said the identity of the suspected terrorists was known to the force.
"It now seems that this was likely a terror attack and that is how we are treating it," Shabtai said. "We are investigating his close circles in order to apprehend him," he said.
4 View gallery
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai at the scene of a terror motivated murder in Holon
(Photo: Nadav Abes)
He was identified as a resident of the West Bank who had previously been questioned by the security services for entering Israel without a permit, but the police did not want to give out more information, in order not to interfere with their investigation.
The iron bar he used to kill the elderly victim, has been found and taken for forensic examination.
Police set up roadblocks around the city, just south of Tel Aviv and is conducting searches with the help of dogs.
The Shin Bet security agency had earlier detained the construction workers who were near the site of the murder and they were taken for investigation
Karin, who lives nearby, said she had alerted the police.
"I saw her already dead, it was a dreadful site," she told Ynet. "I don't know how long she was lying there, but she looked hurt and we first thought she might have fallen," Karin said.
Another neighbor said she was afraid after an elderly woman was attacked so brutally just outside her house.