Occupied Jerusalem: An Israeli court in occupied Jerusalem found two Israelis guilty of the burning alive of a Palestinian teenager in the run-up to last year’s Gaza war, but held off on convicting the alleged ringleader, raising the risk of fresh tensions.
The ruling on Monday comes amid two months of Palestinian attacks, and the court’s decision to delay the main suspect’s conviction to evaluate his mental state drew criticism from the victim’s family and Palestinian movement Hamas.
In Monday’s ruling, two Jews who were minors when they were charged were convicted by the court of the July 2, 2014 abduction and murder of Mohammad Abu Khdeir, 16.
The third defendant, a 31-year-old Israeli colonist viewed as the ringleader, was found to have committed the crime, but the court held off on convicting him after his lawyers submitted a report in recent days arguing his mental state meant he was not responsible for his actions.
Abu Khdeir’s father denounced the delay in the verdict and called for the trio’s houses to be demolished, as Israel does for Palestinians who target Israelis.
“The court behaves one way with Arabs and another way with Jews,” Hussain Abu Khdeir told reporters outside the court, calling the last-minute psychiatric report by Yousuf Haim Bin David’s lawyers a “trick” and asking why it was not submitted earlier.
Sentencing for the two who were convicted was set for January 13, while a hearing was scheduled for December 20 for Bin David, from the Adam colony in the occupied West Bank.
Abu Khdeir was abducted and killed weeks after the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.
The incidents were part of a spiral of violence that led to a 50-day Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
The war killed more than 2,200 people, making 2014 the bloodiest year of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the United Nations.
The two convicted are 18 now but were 16 when they were charged in July 2014, with one residing in occupied Jerusalem and the other from the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh. They have not been identified by the court.
Abu Khdeir was kidnapped from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and his burned body was found hours later in a forest in the western part of the city.
An initial forensic report showed smoke in his lungs, indicating he was alive when set alight. A lawyer for the family said his body had been burnt beyond recognition.
Weeks earlier, the June 2014 abduction of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach from a hitchhiking stop near the occupied West Bank city of Hebron sparked a vast Israeli search operation in which hundreds of Palestinians were arrested and at least five killed.
Israel immediately blamed the kidnappings on Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, rounding up hundreds of suspected members in the West Bank.
The brutal revenge killing of Abu Khdeir was followed by an uptick in rocket fire from Gaza, and the launch on July 8 of a full-scale Israeli military operation against the Palestinian enclave.
Hamas immediately denounced the delay in the verdict for Bin David, calling it “proof of the occupier’s racism and the cover it gives to [colonists]’ crimes.”
A fresh wave of violence erupted in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip at the start of October, including knife, gun and car-ramming attacks as well as protests by Palestinians.
Violence since October 1 has left 101 dead on the Palestinian side, including a Palestinian in 1948 areas, as well as 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.
Many of the Palestinians have been killed over alleged attacks on Israelis, while others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during protests and clashes.
