East Jerusalem man gets 2 years for driving terrorists to attack
Hamis Saliama regularly provided transport into Israel for West Bank residents; drove 3 men who killed policewoman In Jerusalem in February
An East Jerusalem resident was given two years in prison Monday for transporting three Palestinian terrorists to the capital where they murdered a border policewoman earlier this year.
Hamis Salima, a 57-year-old from the Wadi al-Joz area in East Jerusalem, was convicted by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court of causing death by negligence in the killing of Border Police cadet Hadar Cohen.
He was found to have regularly driven West Bank residents into Israel even when they did not hold permits to cross the Green Line into Israel. Among those he brought in were the three terrorists who killed the policewoman.
Ahmed Abou al-Roub, Mohammed Kameel and Ahmad Najah Ismail Nazar, all from Qabatiya in the northern West Bank, attacked police guarding the Old City’s Damascus Gate with rifles, knives and two pipe bombs on February 3, after being driven by Salima, police said.
Cohen, 19, was fatally wounded in the attack after being shot in the head and stabbed in the neck by the attackers, all in their 20s.
She had been drafted into the Border Police only two months earlier, and was still in training at the time of the attack. Another policewoman was wounded in the attack.
Salima was also charged with causing bodily harm to the second policewoman.
He allegedly took the three attackers to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, after they crossed over the West Bank security barrier. He received a payment of NIS 150 for the ride.
Several hours later, the three Palestinians arrived at Damascus Gate at the entrance to the Old City — a flashpoint for Palestinian attacks over recent months — where they carried out their attack.
Cohen was part of a three-member squad that spotted the three Palestinians behaving suspiciously and asked to see their identification papers.
As one attacker withdrew his ID card, the others opened fire and pulled out knives to attack the officers.
According to police, Cohen managed to return fire before she was mortally wounded, despite being surprised by the attackers. Officers killed the attackers on site.
