Described by Reuters as Israel's worst multiple murder case, the 1989 Tel Aviv spree killing resulted in seven deaths and a life sentence for the convicted perpetrator.
Key Facts
- Victims killed
- 7 (five women, two men)
- Method
- Strangulation with a nylon rope
- Perpetrator
- Mohammed Halabi, age 32
- Arrest date
- 20 November 1989, Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip
- Sentence
- Life imprisonment plus 40 additional years
- Sentencing date
- 25 January 1990
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Mohammed Halabi, a Palestinian informant for the Israeli security agency Shin Bet, claimed he killed the victims on orders from a Palestinian resistance movement, targeting alleged collaborators and prostitutes. Israeli police, however, believed the killings stemmed from an unrelated personal dispute rather than a politically motivated directive.
Between 18 and 19 October 1989, seven civilians — five women and two men of mixed Jewish and Arab background — were strangled to death with a nylon rope in an apartment in Tel Aviv and in nearby Jaffa. Their bodies were discovered on 20 October 1989, in what Reuters described as Israel's worst multiple murder case.
Halabi was arrested on 20 November 1989 at his home in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip after confessing to the killings. On 25 January 1990, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the seven murders and an additional 40 years for two attempted murders.