It should be emphasized, however, that the case law considered the importance of maintaining the separation between the joint performer and the accomplice, and warned against overly expanding the concept of the joint operation. Thus, it was proposed to focus on the question of whether prior planning was carried out, and whether the defendant took part in the physical commission of the offense - when the greater the degree of involvement in the planning, the more limited the involvement in the physical commission of the offense (see: Criminal Appeal 2638/10 Anonymous v. State of Israel, para. 1 of the judgment of Judge (as he was then called) A. Grunis) (March 24, 2011)).
It should be noted that the case law mentions a test similar in nature to the combined test, according to which the court must trace "four key concepts" that characterize the conduct of the perpetrator together: a joint plan; an internal circle; functional control; and one body (see criminal appeal 8704/09 Basha v. State of Israel, para. 24 of the judgment of the judge (as he was then called) v. Hendel (November 11, 2012) (hereinafter: the Basha case); criminal appeal 8382/17 Jaber v. the State of Israel (July 28, 2019)).
The application of these tests to the circumstances of the case before us necessarily leads to the conclusion that the defendant should be considered a joint perpetrator of all the offenses, including the offense of murder in aggravated circumstances. If we first focus on the day of the murder itself, the defendant's actions on that day are sufficient to determine with certainty that he was deep in the "internal" circle of the perpetrators of the murder, had extensive functional control over the acts, and acted together with his accomplices, as one body, in the execution of the murder plan. Thus, the defendant took an active and central part in the search and tracing of the deceased in the morning hours of the day of the murder. As may be recalled, the defendant arrived at the deceased's residence in Mitsubishi at about 7:05 A.M., and by 7:30 A.M. he passed by the deceased's house no less than six times, expecting him to leave. Similar maneuvers were carried out at the same time, on a smaller scale, by the Toyota, in a clear demonstration of joint activity, which became sharper with the deceased's departure from his home and the surveillance conducted by the Mitsubishi and Toyota after him, until it was clarified that he had left the Lod area towards his place of work in Holon.