Terrorist who killed off-duty cop given 2 life sentences
Ziad Awad and son sent to jail for 2014 West Bank shooting of Baruch Mizrahi on Passover eve
A Hamas terrorist was sentenced to back-to-back life sentences on Monday for the 2014 killing of an off-duty Israeli police officer in the West Bank.
The Ofer military court also sentenced Ziad Awad to an additional 16 years that were remaining on his sentence prior to his release from prison in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap with the Hamas terror group. He was also ordered to pay NIS 275,000 ($78,000) in damages to the family of Baruch Mizrahi.
Security forces demolished Awad’s home in a Palestinian village near Hebron in 2014 for his role in the attack.
Awad’s son Izz Eddin Hassan Ziad Awad received a 20-year sentence on Monday for helping his father plan and carry out the attack. He was also ordered to pay NIS 325,000 ($92,000) in damages.
Mizrahi, a 47-year-old father of five, was shot to death on April 14, 2014, near Hebron by Awad just before the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover. He was driving with his wife’s family at the time of the attack and his pregnant wife, Hadas, was moderately injured in the shooting.
The shooting led to renewed criticism in Israel of mass prisoner exchanges, as Awad was among 1,027 Palestinian terrorists released as part of the 2011 swap for former Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held by Hamas in Gaza for over five years after he was seized by the terror group.