Gaza man who infiltrated Israel, stabbed security guard in 2021 gets 20-year sentence

The Beersheba District Court hands down a 20-year sentence to a Palestinian man who crossed into Israel from Gaza armed with knives and attacked a security guard in 2021.

He was convicted in January of attempted murder with a terroristic motive, in addition to illegal infiltration.

The Gaza resident, Amad Tzufi, is also given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay compensation of NIS 50,000 to the victim, who was lightly wounded in the attack.

Tzufi entered Israel May 30, 2021, through an undetected breach in the security fence caused by a mortar shell fired from the enclave during the 11-day conflict earlier that month. He came in armed with two kitchen knives.

The attack occurred when he stabbed a civilian security guard patrolling a road near the Sdei Avraham community, near the borders with Gaza and Egypt.

The security guard was lightly wounded in the attack.

In the sentencing, the judges note the gravity of the incident given that “the accused was aware that the victim was Jewish and stabbed him and tried to kill him out of a nationalistic or ideological motive.”

“There is no dispute that fortunately the victim sustained an injury that was defined as minor,” the sentencing continues, while pointing out that the reason the security guard was not more seriously wounded was because he “managed to fight back.”