A Jewish “terrorist” who has allegedly confessed to a string of murders and terror attacks was remanded in custody for a week in a Petah Tikvah court on Wednesday.

As part of the ongoing investigation, Ya’akov Teitel’s Manchester-born wife, Rivka, was arrested as she drove to a remand hearing for her husband, and was separated from her baby. The couple have four children and live in the Shvut Rachel settlement on the West Bank.

Mrs Teitel’s family sought to distance themselves from his alleged crimes this week. Her sister, Sarah Avitan, said that no one in the family supports violence. “If he did the things which he is charged with, he’s acted alone. We’ve just been busy trying to support our sister to survive the daily trauma and revelations about her husband. Her children have all kinds of fears and cry a lot. Their father has been gone for the past month and they don’t know what’s happening.”

Mrs Teitel was born Rivka Pepperman to a family from Broughton Park, Manchester. Her father, Michael, a well-known solicitor in the community, was a member of the now closed Central Synagogue. The family made aliyah in 1981, when Rivka was two years old and Sarah was six. Last January, Palestinian snipers riddled Ms Avitan’s family car with bullets as she and her husband, Moshe, were driving in the West Bank.

Moshe was hit and left blind.