A West Bank Palestinian has been charged with kidnapping and raping a 7-year-old Israeli girl whom he had met at the school where he was employed as a maintenance worker, the police said.

The defendant, a resident of the West Bank village of Deir Qadis, worked at an Israeli school in the Mateh Binyamin region in the central West Bank. The suspect developed a relationship with the child over an extended period, according to the indictment, engaging her in conversation and giving her candy.

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One day, the suspect took the child to a house near the school, according to the charges, and after “holding her hand forcefully, causing her to fall,” he then raped her.

The child “cried and called for help,” according to the indictment, and was released by the defendant following the rape.

The indictment was filed by the Israeli military prosecutor’s office following an investigation that lasted several months.

Chaim Bleicher of the right-wing legal aid organization Honenu, who is representing the child’s family, said several Palestinian laborers were present during the rape and provided assistance to the defendant, but this was not noted in the indictment.

“This is an incredibly shocking, cruel case,” Bleicher said, allegedly involving “an act of pure hate by a group of sickos who acted against all human values because this is a Jewish girl.”

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