Jerusalem – A Jerusalem court on Tuesday handed a life sentence to the main attacker in the killing of a Palestinian teenager in 2014 whose death helped spark a chain of events that led to that year’s Gaza war.
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The court sentenced Yosef Haim Ben David, 30, to life plus 20 years. The state prosecutor said the damage he caused Israel and the family of the Palestinian teen is “irreparable.”
Ben David and two accomplices abducted 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir in his east Jerusalem neighborhood, drove to a forest and burned him to death. They said the abduction was revenge for the killing of three abducted Israeli teens by Palestinians earlier that summer.
The killing was widely condemned in Israel, but fueled violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police.
Ben David expressed remorse in the courtroom. After the sentencing, the Abu Khdeir family yelled slurs at him. Hussein Abu Khdeir, father of the murdered teen, said he wants to “see him die in prison.”
The 50-day Gaza war in 2014 killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, about a third of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and seven civilians were killed.
Gaza has been mostly calm since then, but Israel said earlier on Tuesday that customs officials thwarted a plot to smuggle explosive materials into the Hamas-run territory.
Israel’s Tax Authority said inspectors uncovered four tons of ammonium chloride— enough to produce hundreds of rockets— hidden inside sacks of salt about two weeks ago as the shipment was being transferred to Gaza. Militants in Gaza have fired thousands of rockets at Israel over the years.
“This case underscores the activity of Gaza-based terrorist organizations in smuggling dual-use materials disguised as goods destined for the civilian population and reconstruction projects,” the Tax Authority said.
Along with explosives, ammonium chloride can be used in fertilizer and other products.
Israel’s Shin Bet security service became suspicious after unusually large quantities of salt were ordered by a Gaza importer with ties to the Islamic militant group Hamas, the tax authority said.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2007 after Hamas seized power from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Humanitarian aid and goods enter Gaza via Israeli crossings. Other goods are smuggled in through tunnels from neighboring Egypt.
Also on Tuesday, the Israeli military demolished the home of a Palestinian attacker who gunned down two Israelis in front of their children in the West Bank last year.
Ziad Amer, the father of suspected killer Zeid, said Israeli troops in dozens of army vehicles raided the West Bank town of Nablus and demolished the family’s apartment. He said his appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court against the demolition was rejected.
The military says Zeid Amer was part of a five-member Hamas cell that shot and killed U.S. citizen Eitam Henkin and his wife Naama as they drove in the northern West Bank on Oct. 1. Their four young children in the back of the car escaped unharmed.
Israel says it carries out housing demolitions to deter attacks. The Palestinians consider it a form of collective punishment.
Since mid-September, Palestinians have carried out dozens of assaults on civilians and security forces, killing 28 Israelis and two Americans. Some 200 Palestinians have been killed over the same period, the vast majority of whom Israel says were carrying out attacks or planning them.
In which prison swap will he get released.
if he was an arab terrorist his sentence would be less then life
Another innocent Jew “confessed” after torturing the daylights out of him. It was reported then – which was later removed – that the father clearly stated to the police that an Arab clan killed his son but the police would rather arrest and torture a Jew in order to appease Arabs. Of course Yosef Chaim admitted – he’s retarded after all. Shame on anyone who believes the Shin-Bet Mafia. They’re the most despicable organization in Israel together with the self-appointed-for-life judicial court.
#1 and #2 speak the truth, lets steal an Arab PA cop and then hold him in exchange for our Yid who was tortured into a Shin Bet “confession”, the actions of the Zionist enterprise and Shin Bet in particular are holding Moshiach back from coming. Just by looking at his eyes one can see he is not 100% even before the Zionist torture, I think Stalin didn’t even do these things, how can we get rid of this negative yoke called the medina?
Like the Italians maintaining the innocence of convicted Mafioso hitmen…and like Irish nationalists decrying convicted Sean Fein bombers as victims of police torture, and maintaining their innocence…same disease…but sadder when it’s our own people with their biased heads in the sand, championing the cause of murdering animals. Feh
Ki mehorsayich umacharivayich mimeych yetzeu yemach shemom this is the erev rav yemach shemom