By Anees Bargouthi
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel’s Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday sentenced an Israeli man to life in prison for the 2014 murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in East Jerusalem.
Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Mohammed Abu Khdeir from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shufat, Mohaned Jubara, Abu Khdeir’s family lawyer, told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.
Ben David was the leader of the group that kidnapped, beat and burned the boy to death.
He was also sentenced separately to 20 years for other crimes. In addition, the court ordered him to pay the equivalent of $39,000 to Abu Khdeir’s family.
In February, two Israeli minors were sentenced to prison in the same case. The first minor was given life imprisonment while the other was sentenced to 21 years.
The death of Abu Khdeir triggered widespread clashes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and contributed to the tension that soon led to Israel’s seven-week military onslaught on the blockaded Gaza Strip in which more than 2,150 Palestinians were killed.
The convicts said they killed Abu Khdeir in revenge after the murder of three Israeli settlers in June 2014.
