An Israeli court convicted two Israeli teens for the 2014 murder of Mohammad Abu Khdeir, but their ringleader evaded a conviction due to a surprise insanity plea.
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Abu Khdeir was abducted and killed weeks after the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.
The homicides of Khdeir and the three Israeli teenagers were links in a chain of violence that resulted in the Gaza war in Hamas, which commands Gaza and summer 2014 between Israeli forces.
Abu Khdair’s body was discovered on 2 July 2014, following what was believed to be a revenge attack after the murder of three Israeli teenagers. On Sunday, Israeli police killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in east Jerusalem who Israel says was throwing a firebomb at Israeli forces.
It was unclear if the verdicts would assuage fury over a perceived double standard in Israel’s treatment of Jewish and Muslim suspects.
The news comes at a time of heightened tension between Israel and Palestinians as clashes continue in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza strip.
“We have complicated feelings”, Ansam Abu Khdeir, 28, said, a cousin of the deceased, “We don’t know what to feel, we already know there is no justice here in Israel”, she continued.
Ben David confessed, incriminating the two minors, and they were all put on remand for eight days.
After Muhammad’s murder, which was condemned by Palestinian and Israeli leaders, the Israeli Defense Ministry granted his family benefits accorded to families of Jewish victims of terror attacks, and included his name in a monument to terror victims.
Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Palestinian, was bludgeoned and set on fire while he was still alive.
Entering court before the ruling, Hussein Abu Khdeir, Mohammed’s father, expressed concern to reporters that the judges might clear the suspects.
Additionally, the Guardian added a sub-headline indicating the Palestinian death toll in the current wave of violence, which has mostly revolved around near-daily knifing attacks against Israelis, predominantly in the West Bank but also in central Israel. Zaban said it would be examined separately later this month. Yosef Haim Ben David, 31, entered a last-minute insanity plea.
One of the young men said Ben David had given them pills “to calm us down”, and that they had tried to get out of the situation.
Mr Corb said: “When we try to claim that we are better than our enemies – and I think that we are better than them – we should look at this event as a mirror”.
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One Israeli was injured Tuesday morning in a stabbing incident at the Gush Etzion Junction south of Jerusalem, the army said. “The whole system is corrupted and is working together against Palestinians, especially when an Israeli commits a crime against a Palestinian”.
