Israelis convicted of murdering Palestinian teenager

The developments might additionally additional improve Israeli-Palestinian tensions amid a two-month wave of violence in that has convulsed the region. I’m afraid that the court will eventually get them off the hook.

A decision on his fate is expected after the court rules on the insanity motion in the coming days. One of the youths helped douse Mohammad Abu Khdair with petrol while he was still alive, before Ben David lit a match and set him on fire, they added.

Ben-David’s case will be discussed again on December 20.

The killing of Abu Khdeir, who was burned to death, was in revenge for the killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.

The deaths of the three Israelis triggered an Israeli crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank. It is still unclear if the service will be granted by Israel in the Strip as well, although minister Musa claims the agreement “concerns all of Palestine, Gaza included”. One confessed quickly, incriminating three others, some of them minors, and they were put on remand for eight days. In an eleventh hour motion lawyers representing Ben-David submitted an additional psychiatric evaluation claiming the lead defendant suffered from mental illness from the age of 13, further prolonging the trial that began previous year.

The panel of three Israeli judges agreed that Yosef Haim Ben David, 31, carried out the killing, but are delaying their final ruling until January to reconsider a last-minute insanity plea. Two minors were found guilty of murdering Mohammed Abu Khdeir, but a third man is facing a psychological review before being sentenced. For the many Palestinians following the trial, Ben-David’s delay is now overshadowing the significance of Monday’s two guilty findings.

Inside the Jerusalem courtroom, two Israeli minors were convicted of murdering Mohammed. The U.S. State Department said it was “disappointed” with that sentence.

“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.

Meanwhile in Jerusalem, at least six Palestinians were detained by Israeli police.

Israel says the violence stems from Palestinian incitement and incendiary videos on social media.

“When we attempt to maintain that we’re better than our enemies – and that I believe that we’re better than them – we should look only at that occasion as a mirror”, he said. “The whole system is corrupted and is working together against Palestinians, especially when an Israeli commits a crime against a Palestinian”.

Soldiers shot dead the knife-wielding attacker, who approached people waiting at a hitchhiking stop, the army said.

“If they were Arabs, their homes would have been demolished immediately”, said the elder Abu Khdeir, a member of a prominent Palestinian family with branches that reach to the United States. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has said the suspects were known have not been arrested to protect intelligence sources.