A severe indictment was filed Tuesday against Omar Khalifa, 19, from the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, on a series of security, weapons, and drug offenses committed over several years. Prosecutors also requested he be held in custody until the end of legal proceedings.
1+According to the indictment, Khalifa participated in multiple violent riots near the Shuafat checkpoint in 2023-2024. Two of the incidents occurred during the demolition of a home and on the anniversary of the killing of terrorist Udai Tamimi, who carried out the 2022 shooting attack at the Shuafat checkpoint in which soldier Noa Lazar was murdered and others were wounded.
During the riots, Khalifa threw stones, paint bottles, and firebombs at security forces, helped prepare materials used in the disturbances, and was involved in setting fire to a roadblock. The indictment also states that starting last year—after he was wounded in a shooting incident stemming from a local dispute—Khalifa began trafficking dangerous drugs, selling them daily to various people in and around the refugee camp.
1+Khalifa is also accused of purchasing two illegal handguns for tens of thousands of shekels, which he possessed and carried over an extended period. In one case, he fired one of the guns to test whether it worked—and in another, he returned fire during a violent dispute in the camp.
The charges against Khalifa include rioting, manufacturing and transporting weapons, arson, attempted assault of police officers under aggravated circumstances, trafficking in dangerous drugs, purchasing, possessing and carrying weapons, and firing a weapon in a residential area.