A 21-year old pizzeria worker was stabbed to death in Petah Tikva overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, on Independence Day, after asking a group of teenagers not to use party spray in the restaurant.
The events took place around 1 a.m. Yemanu Binyamin Zelka was on shift at a Pizza Hut restaurant in the Kfar Ganim neighborhood, according to a report in the Walla news site, when he approached a group of teenagers who were acting disruptively and using the party spray popular with children on the holiday.
After Zelka politely asked them to stop, the teens waited outside for him to finish his shift, and then attacked him when he left the building, according to Hebrew media reports and a statement by Petah Tikva Mayor Rami Greenberg.
The Walla report said some 10 youths were involved in the assault, though it indicated one of them was primarily responsible for the lethal stabbing.
One teen had been arrested in relation to the case, the Kan public broadcaster reported on Friday, adding that further details have been barred from publication because the suspect is a minor.
“The wounded was lying unconscious, suffering from stab wounds to his body,” medics from the Magen David Adom ambulance service said in its report on the incident.
“We gave him first-aid, including stopping the bleeding, and we put him on a mobile ICU and transferred him to a hospital in severe condition,” the medics said.
Zelka succumbed to his wounds at Beilinson Hospital on Thursday night.
ימנו זלקה הגיע ממשפחה קשת יום. הוא התחיל לעבוד בפיצריה לפני חמש שנים כשליח על אופניים, והתקדם לתפקיד אחראי משמרת. סיים את המשמרת בערב יום העצמאות ב-1:30 לפנות בוקר. הרוצחים חיכו לו בחוץ. הוא ניסה לברוח אך ללא הצלחה. הדקירה פגעה בעורק הראשי ברגלו. זלקה התבוסס בדמו. אין עצורים. pic.twitter.com/DQ1twDHaNs
— Gil Solomon (@Soloph0ne) April 24, 2026
Following the incident, residents of Petah Tikva lit memorial candles and placed messages outside the restaurant in the 21-year-old’s memory.
Family ‘crushed’ by loss of ‘a pure and innocent child, who never did wrong by anyone’
Zelka’s family expressed gratitude for “the support that we’ve seen online and in-person,” according to Ynet, adding, “It’s not taken for granted.”
“As a family, we are crushed and heartbroken, a simply unfathomable event. We still haven’t absorbed he’s no longer with us, how the life of a pure and innocent child, who only knew good in his life, never did wrong by anyone in his life, and in his last moments acted in the best way possible, was cut off and won’t return,” they said.
“As of now the date of the funeral is not known, and is contingent on other factors; when we know, we’ll know. With respect to the investigation, as you know, it’s in the care of the Israel Police, and we hope they will work to find those responsible,” the family said.
Tamir Zilber, the manager of the Pizza Hut, told Kan: “Binyamin loved everyone, and everyone loved him.”
“He was with us from age 16, he was special. Shifts with Binyamin were an experience,” Zilber said, noting that the victim was also a counselor in the Bnei Akiva youth movement.
In a Facebook post, Bnei Akiva said it too was “shocked and pained at his murder.”
Petah Tikva Mayor Greenberg, in a statement Thursday, said: “There are no words to describe the magnitude of the shock and the pain of the loss of a young life in circumstances this cruel and difficult.”
“The young people who attacked and murdered will be caught by the police and made to stand trial,” the mayor vowed. “There is no consolation here, but there is a clear commitment to justice.”
“I call on all young people – stay away from violence! There is no heroism in it, only destruction. One moment of anger can destroy whole lives – of the victim, of the family and of the attacker himself,” he said.
To parents, he urged: “Talk with your children. Get involved, get interested, check where they’re spending time and with whom, especially at night. We all share responsibility.”
Greenberg said the city would use all the tools at its disposal, including education, information and law enforcement, to stem violence.
First Lady Michal Herzog mourned Zelka on Friday, saying: “It’s unimaginable how lives are taken. This incident is being investigated, and I trust the police to do their utmost and best to investigate it speedily. The responsibility to prevent the next incident is on us — society and parents — and on law enforcement bodies as well.”
Unchecked murder wave
Some 15 people have been murdered in Israel in the past 10 days and 105 since the start of the year. Most of the fatalities have been in the Arab sector; some 14 Jews have been killed.
Overnight Thursday-Friday, a 50-year-old man, identified as Majed al-Sheikh, was found in an open field between Isfiya and Daliyat al-Karmel in the north, having been shot to death.
On Friday, a 19-year-old was stabbed to death in a fight in Beersheba. The victim of this incident wasn’t known to police and did not have a criminal background, according to Haaretz, which added that the suspicion is that those involved had drunk alcohol.
Two men were reportedly stabbed in Netanya on the night of Independence Day.
Opposition lawmakers were quick to connect Zelka’s death to the national crime wave.
Merav Ben-Ari, of Yesh Atid, blamed the police under far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for lax enforcement.
“The police are engaging in nonsense, and people are paying with their lives. Women are murdered in their homes, young people from the Arab community are shot in the street, and this time Yamenu paid the price,” Ben-Ari wrote on social media.
MK Gilad Kariv, of The Democrats, wrote on Friday: “Can someone explain to me why Ben Gvir and the police commissioner didn’t show up yesterday to the site of the horrific murder in Petah Tikva, upon hearing of the death of Yemanu Binyamin Zelka?”
“In truth, we can all explain it. The blood that flows on our streets simply does not interest Ben Gvir and the group of sycophants and incompetents who surround him,” he said.
And Yisrael Beytenu chief MK Avigdor Liberman wrote: “There is a total loss of control here, and as a society we cannot allow this to fall from the agenda.”
Source:
www.timesofisrael.com
