Three Israelis convicted for killing Palestinian teen
16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir was abducted and burnt to death in July of last year
A court in Jerusalem on Monday found three Israelis guilty of kidnapping and killing Palestinian teen Muhammad Abu Khdeir in July of last year.
The Times of Israel reported that two Israeli minors had been convicted for the crime, while an adult defendant, Yosef Ben David, had been found guilty but not formally convicted due to an unresolved insanity plea.
Abu Khdeir's father, Hussein, complained of Israeli "double standards", noting that the court had not issued a house demolition order against the convicted Israelis as it often does against Palestinians convicted of attacking Israelis.
According to the two convicted minors, Ben David encouraged them to kidnap 16-year-old Abu Khdeir from outside his home in East Jerusalem's Shufat neighborhood in July 2014.
The death of Abu Khdeir, who was burnt to death by his abductors, triggered widespread clashes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and contributed to the tension that soon led to Israeli’s seven-week military onslaught on the blockaded Gaza Strip in which more than 2,150 Palestinians were killed.
The convicted Israelis say they killed Abu Khdeir in revenge for the murder of three teenage Israeli settlers who had been found dead one day earlier after being kidnapped in the West Bank.
