Occupied Jerusalem: A Jerusalem court on Tuesday handed life imprisonment 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.
The court sentenced Yosef Haim Ben David, 30, to life plus 20 years. The state prosecutor said the damage he caused the family of the Palestinian teen is “irreparable”.
David and two accomplices abducted 16-year-old Mohammad Abu Khdeir in his occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood, drove to a forest and burnt him alive in 2014. After the sentencing, Hussain Abu Khdeir said he wants to “see him die in prison” for the gruesome murder of his son.
Two weeks ago, David was convicted of Abu Khdeir’s murder. In an interview with Gulf News at the time, Suha Abu Khdeir, the victim’s aunt, said she was surprised by the guilty conviction, having little faith in the Israeli justice system. “He [the convict] deserves the death penalty for committing such a heinous crime. To kill a child like that in such a gruesome way.
“I hope he and his accomplices never see the light of day, so they cannot be released and free to commit more crimes.”
Her son Tareq, an American citizen from Tampa, Florida, was brutally beaten by Israeli police in occupied Jerusalem after they snatched him during protests against his cousin’s murder.
The American embassy had to intervene to secure Tareq’s release in a case that received international attention.
Suha and her son were visiting relatives in occupied Jerusalem at the time.
