Suspect in Leah Ofri Malka’s Murder Suspected of Using Criminals to Carry Out the Hit
“Oh my God, there’s a car exploding on the road”: that is how the report to Magen David Adom’s dispatch center sounded about the killing of the 35-year-old woman on the Ayalon Highways.
A few days after Leah Ofri Malka was murdered in a car bomb explosion on the Ayalon Highways, the investigation by the Central District’s serious crimes unit is focusing on the suspicion that her former partner, Chen Cohen, 37, from Rishon Lezion, did not act alone. According to the suspicion, Cohen was assisted by figures identified with criminal organizations, who had the knowledge, experience and ability to carry out a targeted killing using an explosive device. Malka, 35 and the mother of a two-year-old girl, was killed in a bomb explosion weighing about half a kilogram that detonated in her car on the Ayalon Highways near the Holon interchange during rush hour. According to the investigation findings, the device was placed under the driver’s seat, and the powerful blast left her no chance. Immediately after the murder, the Central District’s special investigations unit opened an investigation, during which Cohen was summoned for questioning under caution and later arrested. The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court extended his detention on suspicion of murder after planning and conspiracy to commit a crime. Cohen denies the allegations against him and claims he was at home during the explosion.
Today was supposed to be Leah Ofri Malka’s 36th birthday. Instead of celebrations, her cousin Tom Nisani posted a painful farewell message: “Our beloved Lilush, today we were supposed to celebrate your 36th birthday. Instead of choosing a cake, candles and gifts, we are standing before a pain and longing that do not let go.” He ended his words with: “We promise not to let your memory disappear and promise that justice will come to light.”
In an interview with Walla, even before the details of the investigation were known, Malka’s father, Yaakov Malka, described months of tension and threats that, he said, preceded the murder. “We did not believe things would end in such a brutal murder,” he said. “There were arguments, there were quarrels, but we did not think it would come to this.” According to him, his daughter even filed a police complaint after threats, and he himself, he said, received threatening calls for hours. He also said that about a month and a half before the murder, messages were sent, he said, threatening to harm their two-year-old daughter.
In the Walla interview, the father also recreated the moment when he began to realize that something unusual had happened. “My son got a call from Ituran because the car was registered in his name. They told him there was an electrical disconnection in the car,” he said. “Even then I felt something was not right.” Minutes later, he said, his daughter’s manager called and asked whether there could be a connection to the explosion on the Ayalon. “At that moment my heart dropped. When there is an electrical disconnection in a car and it is impossible to reach her, suddenly everything connects.”
It also emerged that the car in which Malka was traveling belonged to her brother. Police noted that neither she nor her brother has a criminal record. Her mother previously served in the police and retired, and about an hour before the murder Malka posted a photo of her toddler daughter on social media. The Central District’s serious crimes unit is now continuing to focus on who else was involved in planning and carrying out the murder, and on the role of the figures suspected of helping prepare and plant the explosive device. Investigators are continuing to collect evidence and findings from the scene, in an effort to substantiate the suspicions and track down all those involved in the case.
