News Digest

Jewish youths found guilty of Palestinian teen murder

Two Jewish youths have been convicted of murdering a Palestinian teenager in revenge for the killing of three Israeli youths. Mohammed Abu Khdeir was taken from his home in east Jerusalem on 2 July, 2014. After being forced into a car, he was driven to a forest where he was beaten with a tyre iron and then set on fire. Three defendants, including two minors, confessed to the abduction, bludgeoning and burning of the 16-year-old. His death was described as revenge for the murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas militants. An Israeli court delayed the verdict against a third defendant, 31-year-old Yosef Haim Ben David, pending a psychological report after his lawyer claimed he was unfit for trial.

How can the defendant, two days ago, a year and a half after the crime, bring a document claiming insanity?

Abu Khdeir’s father Hussein

The Palestinian teenager’s father slammed the trial as “a lie” during an interview with Israeli Army Radio. The boy’s murder sparked violence in the Arab suburb of Shuafat in Jerusalem after news spread of the discovery of his body. The killing - and the murders of the three Israeli youths days earlier - triggered a chain of events that led to the 50-day Gaza war. Sixteen-year-olds Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach disappeared on 12 June, 2014. Israel launched a concerted military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after their bodies were discovered near the village of Halhul, on 1 July, 2014.

The court determined unequivocally today that the three defendants committed the barbaric crime of abducting an innocent person only because of his origin, and burning him alive.

State prosecutor Uri Korb, vowing to contest any insanity plea.