The father of two Bedouin girls found strangled to death in the Negev village of Al-Fura'a has been arrested by police after hiding out for some 40 days in caves near the Dead Sea.

The suspect was arrested early last Tuesday by police detectives from the Negev Central Unit and forces from the Southern District's Magen unit, after police received intelligence about his whereabouts. He is considered the prime suspect in the May 21 killings of his two daughters, Asinad, 2, and Ramais, 3.

“This was a tense, round-the-clock manhunt for someone suspected of murdering his daughters, a shocking and inhuman murder that shocked the entire country," said Southern Region Police Commander Maj. Gen. Yoram Halevy. "It was a complex, unusual and exceptional search for a very dangerous suspect who took all possible precautions and hid in open areas, caves and ravines.”

The man denies the allegations, saying the girls were murdered by people who were in a dispute with their mother.

“He says that the murderer is someone who from the Palestinian Authority who was in a dispute with his wife,” said public defender Tomer Urinov. “He says she had served time in a Palestinian Authority prison for car and sheep theft. The suspect also says he did not flee, but went to the Dead Sea area to seclude himself for his 40 days of mourning.”

Police, the Shin Bet security service and other special forces had been involved in the search for the man for over a month. During this time police arrested a man in Lod in connection with the case, but he was released almost immediately. Authorities also looked into the possibility that the man had fled to the Palestinian-controlled areas, though that suspicion was refuted by intelligence information.

“This murder investigation and search for the suspect was defined by me as the highest priority for the district,” said Halevy. “This manhunt was conducted by the best units in the Israel Police, using the most advanced technology that exists in the organization."

“The arrest of the suspect is not the final word and doesn’t constitute coming full-circle,” Halevy continued. “This is not the time to make declarations and promises and it is too early to celebrate. … We must work quietly and very thoroughly and maintain ‘professional modesty.’ We are making enormous efforts to collect all the necessary evidence so that there will be a solid basis for the Southern District Attorney to issue an indictment.”

Only after the evidence is given to the prosecution, Halevy said, “will I be able to look the mother of the girls who were murdered in the eye, and say that we did all we could so that the monster who committed this shocking murder will be where he belongs for a long time – behind bars.”

Following the girls' death, Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino dismissed three senior officers from the Arad police station for their negligence in handling a complaint filed by the girls’ mother just one day before they were killed.

Open gallery view Sisters Asinad, 2, and Ramais, 3, who were found dead in Bedouin town of Al-Fura’a.