Two Israelis Arrested for 'Looting Music Festivalgoers Killed in Oct 7 Attack'

The South District Attorney's Office filed an indictment today (Wednesday) against two residents of Beer Sheva for theft under aggravated circumstances of property belonging to those murdered at the "Nova" outdoor party near Ra'im, where hundreds of young people were massacred by terrorists.

The two, 49-year-old Meir Armo Hajjaj and his cousin, 33-year-old Golani George, are accused of traveling the day after the massacre to the area near the Ra'im parking lot where the party took place, which was defined as a closed military area.

The two traveled together with a third accomplice (the two refused to reveal in the investigation who it was and he has not yet been arrested by the investigators of the Yoav unit) and arrived at one of the police checkpoints near the Gilat intersection in the Negev. The policeman explained to them that there is no entry into the Gaza Strip from the direction of Ofakim since it is a closed military area, but the two gave him a false representation: "We came to help the victims and their families." The policeman believed their version and explained to them that they would be able to get to the party complex from the direction of Nivatov.

The three collected a lot of property from the area belonging to those murdered at the party. Among other things, valuable equipment, work tools that were on the bar in the party complex and speakers were stolen from vehicles and stalls. In addition, they stole jewelry handmade by one of the murdered, the late Dor Malka, who planned to sell it at the party.

After that they left the place with a lot of loot. Ten days later, intelligence information reached the Yoav unit police officers that the two together with another person had looted the property of those murdered at the party. The police arrested the two. They found in the house of one of them a box full of jewelry bearing the name of the late Malka, which was stolen from his car, as well as other tools. The police also seized from Hajag 86 grams of a dangerous drug that he stole from the car of one of the murdered.

The two, through their attorney, attorney Amit Weizman, denied stealing the property from the murdered. They claimed that they bought the jewelry from a Beer Sheva resident without him knowing that it was taken from the party area. The police did not believe their version because they did not give the name of the person from whom the jewelry was purchased.