Palestinian gets life sentence for deadly 2015 terror attack
Fa’iz Hamed also ordered to compensate Malachy Rosenfeld’s family because of his role in cell behind fatal West Bank drive-by
A military court on Monday sentenced a Palestinian man to life in prison for his involvement in a deadly West Bank shooting attack in 2015.
Four Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were also indicted Monday for belonging to the Hamas terror group and taking part in a series of attacks along the border of the coastal enclave.
Fa’iz Hamed was part of a terrorist cell that killed Malachy Rosenfeld, 25, in a drive-by shooting. Hamed was convicted on a number charges, among them intentionally causing death — the military legal system’s equivalent to murder.
The West Bank Military Court also ordered Hamed to pay compensation to Rosenfeld’s family, but the amount was not disclosed.
Besides the attack in which Rosenfeld was killed, the verdict said that the cell Hamed was a part of also carried out a shooting near the Beit El Settlement days before in which no one was wounded.
Hamed was the third member of the terrorist cell to receive a life sentence for Rosenfeld’s murder.
Rosenfeld, 25, was killed, and three others were wounded when Hamas terrorists opened fire on their car near the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel, north of Ramallah, as they returned home from a basketball game.
Rosenfeld’s three friends, with him in the car, were also wounded in the attack.
The four, all of whom lived in the West Bank settlement of Kochav Hashahar, had been driving near Route 60, the main north-south artery running through the West Bank, when they were attacked.
In July 2015, security forces detained four members of a seven-strong Hamas cell behind the attack, the Shin Bet general security service said at the time. Two others were being held by the Palestinian Authority and the ringleader was said to be in Jordan.
The four Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who were indicted Monday were accused of carrying out a number of attacks along the border and attempting to cross the security fence into Israeli territory.
They were charged with belonging to Hamas, an illegal organization, and taking part in the terror group’s violent activities along the border from 2016 to 2019.
The four men — Freij Abu Daher, 29; Malek Abu Mandil, 28; Mahmoud Awidat, 25; and Ramadan Abu Gola, 24 — were accused of throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at Israeli troops along the security fence.
Three of them were also charged with launching kite-borne incendiary devices from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
The four men were arrested on August 30, 2019, when they tried to enter Israel, armed with knives and a grenade.