Hadera teenager named as Amichai Atia; driver's remand extended

Update, 18 September, 19:08 Israel time

The teenager killed at the Hadera shopping complex has been named as Amichai Atia. Ynet reported in a news alert that a court extended by 5 days the detention of the man suspected of running him over.

N12, in a report attributed to its correspondent Sharon Knoblich, said the remand of the driver suspected in the fatal collision in Hadera was extended until Tuesday. The two reports describe the same court decision but frame the length differently, and neither states the court involved.

The man suspected of firing at the driver has been released. N12, citing its correspondent Or Ravid, described him as a member of a local standby squad, the civilian rapid response teams that operate in Israeli towns and communities, and said he was freed from custody. The reports do not say on what conditions he was released, whether the release was ordered by a court or by police, or whether the investigation against him continues.

Neither organisation named the driver, and no charges have been reported filed against either man. Police have not issued a further public statement in the material available on the motive for the confrontation in the car park.

The story as first reported

A teenager was struck by a vehicle and killed in the early hours of the morning at a shopping complex in the northern Israeli city of Hadera, and the driver of the vehicle was then wounded by gunfire at the scene. Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency medical service, said its 101 emergency call centre for the Sharon region received a report at 01:40 of a youth hit by a car at a commercial centre in Hadera, and that its medics and paramedics treated him and took him to Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in critical condition with a head injury while performing resuscitation.

Israel Police are investigating the death as a suspected murder. The Times of Israel reported, citing police, that the incident began as a confrontation between two individuals and escalated, with the teenager struck and fatally injured by the vehicle, and that the driver was afterwards lightly injured by gunfire. The police statement quoted in that report did not say who was suspected of firing. Police said the case is being handled as a criminal matter, meaning there is no current suspicion of a terror attack.

What the police say about the sequence

According to N12, an initial police inquiry indicates the incident started with a confrontation between the parties, during which the young man was run over, and that shooting was carried out at the location afterwards. The broadcaster's news alerts first gave the victim's age as 18 and later issued a corrected alert putting him at 17. Magen David Adom's own statement described the casualty as a youth of about 18. Ynet and the Times of Israel both reported the age as 17. The reports do not explain the discrepancy, and it is the kind of gap that is common in the first hours of an Israeli police investigation, when ages are relayed from the scene before formal identification.

Where this happened

Hadera sits on Israel's coastal plain between Netanya and Haifa, a city of mixed population with a large commercial strip near the shoreline. Ynet reported that the confrontation took place in the car park of the shopping complex opposite the Hof Village site, that the teenager had come to a Selichot event, and that the driver involved was a delivery driver who had been unloading goods.

Selichot are Jewish penitential prayers recited in the run up to Rosh Hashanah and through to Yom Kippur. In Israel they are often said late at night or before dawn, and in recent years large public Selichot gatherings have been held at commercial and cultural venues as well as synagogues, which is why a teenager would have been at a shopping complex at that hour.

Arrests and the wider investigation

Ynet reported that the teenager came from the Shomron area, that a friend of his opened fire towards the driver, who is from Kafr Manda, and that the driver was lightly wounded and was apprehended at the entrance to Netanya. According to the same report, the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, ruled out a nationalist motive, and both the driver suspected of the fatal collision and the person who fired were arrested.

News.co.il reported that large forces from the Hadera police station arrived at the scene, gathered findings and opened an inquiry into the circumstances, and that after an assessment the case was assigned to the Menashe central investigations unit. Central investigations units, known in Hebrew by the acronym Yamar, are regional detective branches that handle serious crime, including homicides, rather than routine station level cases.

The distinction police drew between a criminal incident and a terror attack matters in the Israeli context. A suspected terror attack is investigated with the Shin Bet in the lead and carries a different legal track, while a criminal case stays with police investigators. The reports indicate the security service examined the incident and found no nationalist motive.

What the reports do not say

None of the organisations named the teenager who was killed or the driver. The reports do not say what the confrontation in the car park was about, nor whether the two knew each other beforehand. The police statement cited by the Times of Israel did not identify who fired the shots, while Ynet attributed the shooting to a friend of the teenager; that account has not been confirmed in a police statement in the material available.

It is also not stated how many people were present, what charges the two people arrested may face, or when they are due to be brought before a court. Magen David Adom did not report a formal time of death, and the confirmation that the youth had died came in later police and media updates rather than from the medical service.