The footage is blurry, but the atmosphere is clear: several figures gather on a street in Jerusalem’s Nahlaot neighborhood, just minutes before a violent incident turns into a murder scene. What initially appeared to be another late-night confrontation ended with the death of Benayahu Razi, the injury of another person and a wide-ranging investigation that has now brought seven suspects to the brink of indictments.
The incident took place on July 11, 2026. A report of serious violence brought officers from the Lev Habira police station to the scene, where they found two victims. Razi was found dead, and the street in Nahlaot, a neighborhood usually associated with narrow alleys, nightlife and entertainment, became a closed crime scene within minutes.
Following an assessment led by Jerusalem District Commander Superintendent Avshalom Peled, the investigation was assigned to the Zion District Crime-Fighting Unit. Six suspects were arrested on the first night, and the circle of arrests later expanded with the capture of additional suspects.
How Did the Nahlaot Murder Investigation Lead to Seven Suspects?
The investigation did not focus only on suspected involvement in the deadly incident itself. Detectives also examined suspicions of evidence tampering and assistance given to other suspects after the incident. Investigators and detectives worked alongside the Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office and additional district units in an effort to reconstruct what happened and establish the alleged role of each suspect.
The Jerusalem District Police stated: “Investigators and detectives from the crime-fighting unit worked around the clock in an intensive investigation alongside the Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office, with assistance from additional district units, in order to establish an evidentiary basis against those involved.”
After the investigation was completed and the evidentiary material was exhausted, the prosecution filed a prosecutor’s declaration against seven suspects. Their detention was extended by the court until August 7, 2026, to allow indictments to be filed.
The full charges will become clear once the indictments are submitted to the court, and all suspects are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. But the footage from the moments before the incident already carries a particularly chilling meaning: a Jerusalem street, a group of people and one chain of events that ended with one man dead and seven others expected to stand trial.
