3 sentenced for looting Nova compound on Oct. 8: ‘Complete betrayal of social solidarity’

Three people are sentenced for looting the Nova festival site on October 8, 2023, the day after the devastating Hamas-led onslaught.

Liran Yakubov, Netanel Aviv and Oz Ruham are fined and sentenced to prison terms of between 36 and 40 months, Hebrew media reports.

More than 370 people were slaughtered when Palestinian terrorists attacked the music festival, amid acts of kidnapping, extreme brutality and sexual violence.

According to the indictment, the three Beersheba residents lied so that they could reach the compound — a closed military zone — and entered abandoned vehicles and attempted to open their trunks.

They stole a laptop, credit cards, ID cards and other property of people who were murdered at the party, as well as those who fled the Hamas onslaught.

“The immense joy of life that was abruptly cut short at the Nova Festival on October 7, 2023, became a tragic symbol of national loss. Alongside the unimaginable horror of murder, abuse and kidnapping, another unimaginable phenomenon was discovered: looting by the citizens of the country,” says Beersheba Magistrate Court’s Judge Shosh Sheetrit, according to Channel 12 news.

“The defendants’ behavior reflects a shallow and inexcusable extreme opportunism, which operated under the cover of the chaos of a murderous terrorist attack, and demonstrates how a national crisis can serve as a platform for normative disintegration,” she writes.

“The looting in the circumstances described in the indictment is not just a criminal property offense, it is a complete betrayal of human dignity and basic social solidarity,” Sheetrit says.