In an alarming development, the personal details of Kobi Yekutiel, the Israeli citizen who shot dead a Palestinian terrorist after he ran over and stabbed passers-by in the Naot Afeka neighborhood in Tel Aviv last week, were circulated among the Palestinian networks. In a video that was distributed as a threat to Yekutiel, there are, among other things, pictures of his wife and children alongside their personal details, and pictures of his home.
Yekutiel heard about the threatening video for the first time in a conversation with journalists from Yedioth Ahronoth and replied: "I didn't know about that, it's crazy. I'm shocked, where did photos of my children and my address come from? I don't know how it got to them. I'm calling the police now, this is deeply concerning to me."
'Let's avenge his blood': Terror groups threaten man who eliminated Tel Aviv terrorist https://t.co/93G7wEUKKY via @ArutzSheva_En
— Raziel (@benavu54) July 8, 2023
After complaining to the police, Yekutiel told reporters at the door of his house that the video scares him, but "right now everything is fine." When asked if the police should secure him, he replied that he is not sure. The police announced following the disclosure of the threats that they had started investigating the complaint.
In the video, attributed to the "Palestine Fauda Movement." The video release came along with a statement that read: "We’ve obtained information and details about the Zionist terrorist who shot to death our martyr. Everything is ready. Here is the information about the murderer of your martyred brother. Let's avenge his blood."
Pregnant woman injured in Tel Aviv terror attack loses baby #PaleStinianTerrorism #Israel https://t.co/VgYVzFO2Rh pic.twitter.com/y9EAA49d3W
— Eli Dror (@edrormba) July 8, 2023
In the footage from the attack, Yekutiel is seen shooting the terrorist. A short time later, he was photographed talking to Israeli Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai, but at that point his face was blurred. However, later he was interviewed by the media with his face and voice not being masked and described the events leading up to his neutralizing the terrorist, and the next day the photos that were taken with the police commissioner were published, and strangely without any blurring.
Shabtai who talked with Yekutiel said to him: "You are a hero, you saved a human life, you have my backing." Yektuiel told him: "I was shaking in my legs, I prayed that the bullet would come out because if not I would die." He added that he parked his motorcycle behind the bus stop, and at first thought it was a car accident. According to him, "After he hit the station he got out and stabbed someone, I thought maybe it was a fight between drivers, but then he left him and ran towards other people. At that point, I took out the gun and ran after him.
Kobi Yekutiel, the 62 years old Israeli citizen who neutralized the terrorist in the terror attack in Tel Aviv, recalls: "I immediately realized it was a terror attack, I took out the gun - he ran in my direction"
— Im Tirtzu (@IMTIzionism) July 5, 2023
Kobi, you are a hero! pic.twitter.com/fuERrJLBOf
The 'doxing' of Yekutiel is a new tactic that Palestinian militants are employing. Their hope is that an Arab-Israeli sympathetic to their cause or a Palestinian in Israel with a legal visa would act to take revenge on Yekutiel. How the militants got the information they published and how the image of Yekutiel with Shabtai was unblurred as of now have not been revealed.
