Mother of Itamar massacre victim urges terrorists' homes to be destroyed

The killers should have been sentenced to death, says Tali Ben Yishai

A week after the Shin Bet security service recommended destroying homes belonging to the families of the two terrorists who killed five members of the Fogel family in a West Bank settlement last year, Tali Ben Yishai, the mother of one of the victims, spoke out in favor of the proposal.

Tali Ben Yishai, whose daughter, Ruth Fogel, was killed along with Ruth’s husband Ehud and three of their children in Itamar, believes that the terrorists’ homes should be demolished, at the very least: “With inconceivable cruelty, they took five pure souls and destroyed a home and family, and we think it would be most just to kill them,” she told Maariv. “Due to considerations that I do not understand, they did not receive the death penalty… but in the meantime we demand that at least their homes should be destroyed.”

“The greatest injustice is that such despicable murderers were not given the death penalty,” said Ben Yishai, who has been raising her grandchildren who survived the terror attack.

The terrorists, Hakim Awad and Amjad Awad, confessed to the brutal killings of Rabbi Ehud Fogel, his wife Ruth, 11-year-old Yoav, four-year-old Elad, and three-month-old Hadas on March 11, 2011. They were sentenced to life in prison by a military court last year.

Last week, the Shin Bet recommended razing the homes of the two terrorists’ families, saying they aided the attackers by hiding weapons and destroying evidence.

In the past, house demolitions have been used as a deterrent tool by Israeli security forces. The attorney general’s office and the Defense Ministry are expected to decide on the issue in the coming weeks.