The man who shot Yitzhak Rabin told investigators he did not let anyone else know exactly when and where he would kill the prime minister, Israel Television said Friday.
However, Yigal Amir did tell several people he intended to kill Rabin, and at least one suspect, Margalit Harshefi, knew he had failed in three previous murder attempts against the prime minister, the report said.Another suspect, Avishai Raviv, believed to be the ringleader of the militant Eyal group to which Amir allegedly belonged, was apparently a mole for the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service. Raviv was released from custody on Thursday.
The report said Amir's brother Hagai, suspected of having supplied the bullets that killed Rabin, was a sharpshooter in the army with expertise in ammunitions and explosives.
Acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who was also targeted by Amir, told Israel Television Friday there had been attempts on his life in the past. Following Rabin's as-sassination, an ultra-Orthodox weekly published a rabbinical ruling allowing Jews to kill Peres, the report said.
Amir, a 25-year-old Jew opposed to the government's peace efforts, was captured by police on Nov. 4, seconds after he shot the premier three times at close range with a 9mm handgun at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
"I took into account that those who wear the white wigs (the bodyguards) can kill me and I would not care," Amir reportedly told interrogators. He was referring to the wires hanging down from earphones worn by Shin Bet bodyguards, who are responsible for the safety of government officials.
Amir, a religious law student at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said he knew before shooting Rabin that things were going well when he joked with one of the bodyguards about a performance that evening.
Harshefi, a 20-year-old Jewish settler from the West Bank settlement of Beit El, was denied release Friday after she appealed her arrest earlier in the week.
Her attorney, Yair Golan, told reporters his client had been "shocked" by Rabin's murder.
But Israel TV said that during her first police interrogation - on the day of Rabin's funeral - a siren sounded for a nationwide minute of silence, and Harshefi reportedly said, "I do not intend to stand silent in memory of Rabin."
Harshefi, a Bar Ilan law student and a friend of Amir's, is considered a key conspirator in the assassination. She was described by police investigator Zion Sasson in court Friday as a "threat to national security."
In all, police have arrested seven suspects in the case.