As I will elaborate below (paragraphs 41-43), Shimon identified himself and the defendant in the gas station video during his interrogation with the police on November 15, 2023 (P/69A, p. 21, line 553). Shimon was also clearly identified as the person who was documented in the video of the gas station by Rabbi Mordechai Peretz, the supervisor of the yeshiva where the defendant and Shimon studied, in his testimony in court, as follows: "I remember a gas station. I remember a gas station that is very clear, Shimon. Haim is not clear, Shimon is very clear" (p. 37 of the minutes of the hearing of December 22, 2024, lines 1-2).
The footage in the gas station video, which corresponds to the description of the preparations for the Sheikh Jarrah incident on October 9, 2023, which Shimon gave in his police interrogations, as well as Shimon's identification of himself and the defendant in the gas station video, as well as Rabbi Peretz's identification of Shimon in this video, therefore lend credence to the version that Shimon gave in his interrogations with the police.
- The testimony of the Honda driver, Yehoshua Shuki Guzik, to the police, also corroborates the version given by Shimon in his interrogations with the police. Yehoshua said he drove his Honda Civic into the Paz gas station on Homa Third Street and started refueling, when a young man approached him with an empty bottle in his hand and offered him money in exchange for filling him with gas in the bottle, since he was stuck with a scooter or a motorcycle. Yehoshua described how he filled the bottle with gasoline and refused to take money from the young man (P/53, lines 9, 11-13). This description is similar to the description given by Shimon in his interrogations with the police regarding his approaching the person who was at the gas station in order to fill him with fuel in a bottle, regarding the excuse he gave to that person for the need for fuel - since he got stuck with the motorcycle, regarding the person's willingness to fill the bottle with gasoline, and regarding that person's refusal to take payment from Shimon.
- I will also refer to an insights report to the defendant's mobile phone number of 5 November 2023 (P/31) and to the output of the calls from these dates (P/71), from which it appears that on the day of the incident in Sheikh Jarrah, on October 10, 2023, there were 11 incoming and outgoing calls to the mobile phone number used by Shimon (according to an official cost print issued by the Israel Police dated November 5, 2023, according to which the mobile phone number is owned by Shimon's father - P/72). and as Shimon confirmed in his interrogation with the police that this is the number he uses - P/67A, p. 6, line 143). This strengthens Shimon's version in his interrogations with the police regarding his involvement in this incident and the fact that the defendant called him before leaving for Sheikh Jarrah. Although Shimon stated in his police interrogations that the defendant called him several times on the evening of 9 October 2023, no documentation of these conversations was presented. Nevertheless, I am under the impression that the multitude of conversations during 10 October 2023 strengthens Shimon's version of events and his involvement in the affair.
- Shimon's testimony also fits in with a finding found at the scene of Sheikh Jarrah - "a glass bottle of green color, its mouth is sooty and the bottle smells of flammable substance." As it appears from the photograph of the bottle, it is a Heiniken beer bottle (report summarizing the forensic investigation of October 10, 2023, P/48). A laboratory examination found remnants of gasoline in the bottle (Explosives Laboratory Opinion, Flammable of 25 October 2023, P/74, at p. 3).
This finding strengthens Shimon's version in his interrogations with the police regarding the purchase of beer and fuel bottles prior to the incident in Sheikh Jarrah, and that the defendant "prepared bottles" before the two left for the scene of the incident.
- Moreover, about two weeks after the incident in Sheikh Jarrah, a black backpack was found outside the window in the bathroom while sitting, two white reflective zippers on the front of the backpack, and the bottom of the front of the backpack with the inscription "adidas" written in white. When it was located, a strong smell of gasoline emanated from the file (Memorandum - P/36; photographs attached to the defendant's statement of November 13, 2023 - P/41; supplementary form to exhibits P/44). A laboratory test found remnants of gasoline in the file (the opinion of the Forensic Identification Division of 12 November 2023 - P/76, at p. 2 - and see below in paragraph 61).
The case that was seized is similar in its characteristics to the file documented in the video of the Jarrah talk, which Shimon identified (although not with complete certainty) as a file that the defendant had brought with him at the time of the incident. The characteristics of the seized bag, as well as the gasoline remnants found in it, reinforce the version given by Shimon in his interrogation with the police, according to which the defendant brought a backpack with him, as well as his assessment that Molotov cocktails were in the backpack.