Helena Rapp was murdered on 24 May 1992 when a Palestinian stabbed her to death in the Israeli coastal city of Bat Yam. Rapp was fifteen when she was killed, and the attack shocked the Israeli public as one of the more prominent of a series of stabbing attacks that took place in Israel during the early 1990s. Following the attack, riots broke out in Bat Yam until they were dispersed by police five days later. The attacks signified to many Israelis a deterioration of their personal security. The killer was later freed as part of a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.