Palestinian who killed US teen Ezra Schwartz gets 4 life sentences

A West Bank military court on Sunday sentenced the Palestinian terrorist who killed a US teenager, an Israeli man, and a Palestinian man at the Etzion Junction in the West Bank in November 2015 to four life sentences in prison.

Mohammed Abdel Basset al-Kharoub, who shot dead Ezra Schwartz, 18, Yaakov Don, 51, and Shadi Arafa, 24, was sentenced by the Ofer military court, who further ordered he pay the victims’ families NIS 750,000 ($207,000) in compensation.

In November 2015, al-Kharoub opened fire with an Uzi submachine gun from inside a vehicle on a line of traffic near the Alon Shvut settlement in the West Bank.

When he ran out of ammunition, al-Kharoub drove in the direction of the Gush Etzion Junction before ramming his vehicle into a car.

Al-Kharoub, a native of the Hebron-area village of Dir Smat, was captured by Israeli security forces during the attack.

Yaakov Don, killed during a terrorist attack at the Gush Etzion Juntion, November 19, 2015 (Courtesy)

The 18-year-old Schwartz from Sharon, Massachusetts, was spending his gap year in a Beit Shemesh yeshiva before his enrollment at Rutgers University. Schwartz was on his way to deliver snacks to IDF soldiers near the West Bank settlement of Efrat when he was gunned down.

The other victims of the attack were Don, a longtime teacher and resident of Alon Shvut, and Arafa, a Palestinian resident of Hebron.

The Etzion Bloc junction has been the scene of numerous stabbings and attempted stabbings since a wave of attacks carried out by Palestinians that began in October 2015.

Israeli security officials have noted a marked drop in attacks in the last several months, though sporadic incidents have persisted.