Major update on Sydney nurses who sparked anti-Semitic firestorm after threatening to kill their Israeli patients in shocking video

Police have charged one of the nurses who boasted to kill their Israeli patients in a video that sent shockwaves around Australia.

Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh from Bankstown Hospital in Sydney’s south-west, went into hiding after a shocking 90-second video of them spewing threats to kill Israelis was posted to social media on February 12. 

During the clip, filmed by Israeli influencer Max Veifer, the pair, dressed in NSW Health scrubs, said they would refuse to treat Jewish patients and ‘kill them’ instead.

Both nurses were stood down from their positions while police launched an investigation into the video, assisted by Mr Veifer who shared the full, unedited video.

Following extensive inquiries, detectives arrested a 26-year-old woman after she attended Sutherland Police Station about 7.30pm on Tuesday. 

She was charged with three commonwealth offences including threaten violence to group, use carriage service to threaten to kill and use carriage service to menace/harass/offend.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the charges were a major development in Strike Force Pearl’s exhaustive investigation into the incident.

‘Strike Force Pearl detectives must be commended for acting swiftly under enormous pressure and public expectation,’ Commissioner Webb said.

‘These charges have been laid following a lot of hard work and legal advice, received yesterday from the Commonwealth DPP.

‘Detectives have overcome obstacles and jurisdictional challenges to get where we are today.

‘This is the fourteenth arrest under Strike Force Pearl with a total of 76 charges laid which demonstrates the commitment of strike force detectives investigating these offences.’

The Condell Park woman was granted conditional bail to appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday, March 19.

Strike Force Pearl’s investigation continues.

The news comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed Abu Lebdeh was hiding out in a secret location. 

The nurses and their families were bombarded with threats too graphic to publish. 

Abu Lebdeh’s uncle said his family had put emergency plans in place and were prepared for possible reprisal attacks.

‘We are ready for them, we have seen what’s been said, we are ready for it,’ he said.

‘They won’t get what they want. We will call the police.’

Her brother Mohammad also said his sister had received death threats.

‘Enough of this, we want it to go away … my sister … she’s stressed sick, enough,’ he said.

Meanwhile a few streets away in the same suburb, Nadir, 27, was holed up in his townhouse refusing to leave or answer the door.

‘Someone came past here and they were angry,’ a neighbour told Daily Mail Australia. 

‘They said they had something to tell him and went right to his door. I don’t know who they were, but they knew where he lived.’

The families spoke out as both nurses were deregistered by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW, meaning they are unable to practice anywhere in Australia.

‘As a result [of the deregistration], the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has automatically updated their record on the public register of practitioners,’ Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said.

‘As a result this means the two nurses are unable to practise nursing anywhere in Australia, in any context.

‘Australians have a right to feel safe wherever they go and nowhere should be safer than a hospital.

‘Their sickening comments – and the hatred that underpins them – have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia.’

Premier Chris Minns said that the scandal has broken trust in the public health system.

‘We cannot have examples of naked racism from public servants exhibited on social media or anywhere,’ he said.

The clip was recorded on Chatruletka, a phone app which connects random users for video chat, and showed the pair threatening Jews while at work at Bankstown Hospital.

‘It’s Palestine’s country, not your country you piece of s***,’ Abu Lebdeh said.

‘One day your time will come and you will die the most horrible death.’

‘You have no idea how many (Israelis) came to this hospital and I sent them to Jahannam (hell),’ Nadir said, while making a throat-slitting gesture.

The pair have both apologised for the comments. 

Nadir, 27, covered his face in shame when the media confronted him at his western Sydney home on Wednesday and insisted his comments were ‘a joke and a misunderstanding’.

‘I will use social media, anything, to apologise but I need to go and see the detectives first,’ he said.