Threatening Ms Levengrond-Yehezkel, he forced another Palestinian worker to bind her with plastic handcuffs, threatening to shoot him if he did not comply. He was disturbed by another employee, the suspect shot her.
He then killed Mr Hajbi, who had heard the shooting and was trying to escape. At the time of writing, the suspect is still at large and a large Israeli security forces operation is underway to find him.
Ashraf Neloah worked for the last four months at the Alon recycling plant as an electrician. He had been absent from work for the previous two weeks — for health reasons, according to his family.
An IDF spokesman confirmed that his motives were “beyond doubt — terror”. Acording to managers at the plant, there had been no previous trouble with him and he seemed satisfied at work.
No Palestinian movement has claimed responsibility for the murders and all the evidence indicates that he was operating independently.
But this is the second “lone wolf” attack ending in death of Israelis in three weeks, following the murder of Efrat resident Ari Fuld on September 16.
While there is no direct link between the two cases, the security services have been warning for months of the possibility of another wave of violent attacks, similar to the one that began in October 2015.
The Shin Bet intelligence service reported having prevented 250 “lone attack” attacks in the first six months of 2018, largely by monitoring social media accounts of potential attackers and increasing surveillance at spots where attacks are likely to take place.
But murders of the kind that took place on Sunday — in an industrial zone where half of the employees are Palestinians with work permits — are much more difficult to prevent.
In recent years, the Shin Bet and IDF have advised the government to increase the number of permits allowing Palestinians to work in Israel and in Israeli settlements and companies based in the West Bank.
A very small number of the nearly 100 thousand permit-holders, who must have a clean record, have been involved in attacks.
The income they generate for the local Palestinian economy is seen as an incentive against more widespread violence.
The concern of Israeli security officials is over rising levels of violence in Gaza and the intransigence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who refuses to agree to a solution for the Gaza blockade that does not include his Palestinian Authority as the only conduit for funding.
Both these could energise plans by Hamas to reestablish operations in the West Bank and erode the security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority’s security forces.
A temporary suspension of this coordination was one of the reasons for the outbreak of violence in late 2015.
