RNA - The Ofer military court in the occupied West Bank claimed on Monday that it had found guilty Ziad Awad of purported killing of Baruch Mizrahi, an off-duty Israeli police, by shooting at his vehicle in the vicinity of the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) in April 2014, giving him two back-to-back life sentences.
Awad, a member of the Palestine resistance movement of Hamas, is also accused of allegedly wounding Mizrahi’s wife and their child in the process. The court also sentenced Awad to pay compensation of 275,000 shekels ($77,000).
The same court also sentenced on Monday Awad’s son Izz al-Din to serve 20 years in prison and to pay 325,000 shekels in damages for helping his father’s alleged plan and carry out the purported attack.
Some 6,500 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli jails, over 500 of them arbitrarily, according to figures provided by the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer in January. Palestinian inmates complain that they have been subjected to assault and torture at Israeli prisons.
The occupied Palestinian territories have witnessed new tension ever since Israeli forces introduced restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem al-Quds in August 2015.
Over 300 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of October 2015.
The Tel Aviv regime has tried to change the demographic makeup of Jerusalem al-Quds over the past decades by constructing settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population. Palestinians say the Israeli measures are aimed at paving the way for the Judaization of the city.
The al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a flash point Islamic site, which is also holy to Jews. The mosque is Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
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