Israel Mourns Murder of 19-Year-Old Jewish Girl, PA Vows to Continue Funding Terrorism

JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, visited the home of 19-year-old murdered teen Ori Ansbacher Sunday night to comfort her grieving family.

The young girl was found dead in Jerusalem last week after being brutally attacked in what is an apparent terror attack.

Ansbacher's parents told Hebrew-Language Media their daughter was "a holy soul seeking meaning, with a sensitivity for every person and creature and an infinite desire to correct the world with goodness."

Israeli police arrested 29-year-old Arafat Irfaiya Sunday for Ansbacher's murder. The terrorist confessed to murdering the teen for "nationalist reasons," The Jerusalem Post reported.

Netanyahu broke the news to the Ansbacher family and confirmed it was a Palestinian terror attack.

"It's not surprising, but I wanted to you to know this officially," Netanyahu said while visiting them Sunday evening. "What seemed obvious has also turned out to be real."

According to reports, Israeli authorities learned that Irfaiya was hiding in the Jamal Abdel-Nasser Mosque in el-Bireh. Israeli forces raided the mosque Friday evening but did not find him.

They later arrested Irfaiya in an abandoned building in Ramallah early Saturday morning.

Shin Bet, Israel's security agency said the suspect "left his home in Hebron with a knife and made his way to the village of Beit Jala" south of Jerusalem. Irfaiya allegedly "walked to the forest, where he saw Ori, attacked and murdered her."

Channel 13 reported Sunday that Irfaiya told Israeli interrogators he would attack again and aspired to be a martyr.

"I will do it again, I want to be martyr," Irfayia told investigators, according to the report. "I would do whatever it takes to go to prison, and if you let me go, I'll come back here with a knife so that I will either get sent to prison or become a martyr."

"I would kill to go to prison. It's better there," he said.

Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to freeze money transfers to the Palestinian Authority over the killing.

The Knesset passed a law last year that reduces the funds Israel transfers to the PA by the amount the government gives to convicted Palestinian terrorists who murder Israeli citizens.

PA officials condemned Netanyahu and warned Sunday that Israel's decision to cut funds will lead to a "state of anarchy" in the West Bank.

 PA minister for civilian affairs, Hussein al-Sheikh, told AFP that the PA will "not allow any act of piracy against our money under the pretext of implementing Israeli law. We affirm that if we have one dollar, we will spend it on the families of our martyrs and prisoners."

The US has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians due to the government's "pay-to-slay" policy.