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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| 2 charged in Itamar settler murders |
| 2011-06-06 |
| [Ma'an] Two Paleostinians have been charged with the grisly murder of a young Israeli family stabbed to death in a West Bank settlement in March, the Israeli military said on Sunday. Its website said military prosecutors charged Hakim Awad and a relative, Amjad Awad, both from the West Bank village of Awarta, with the murder of five members of the Fogel family: three-month-old Hadas, four-year-old Elad, 11-year-old Yoav, and their parents Udi and Ruthie. In addition to the frenzied March 11 stabbing attack at the Itamar settlement near Awarta, the men were also charged with stealing weapons, breaking and entering, and conspiracy to commit a crime, the military said. "They confessed to committing the acts and incriminated one another," the website said, quoting the charge sheet. "Also, fingerprints and DNA material of the two were found at the [Fogel] family home." Israel's Ynet news website quoted Amjad Awad as saying he had no remorse, as he was led into a military court in the West Bank for the indictment. "I'm proud of what I did," he was reported to have said. The family of the 19-year-old Hakim Awad maintains that the teen is innocent. "We have the medical records, he is in unstable health," his mother told Ma'an shortly after he was charged, adding that the family was gathering the papers to present as evidence in his defense. She said Hakim had undergone testicular surgery in November at the Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus. "He was at home [the night of the murders] and went to bed at 9:30 [p.m.]," she said. A report in Israel's Haaretz daily news website quoted from the indictment, saying the two charged allegedly arrived at the settlement at 7 p.m., shortly after dusk, first stabbed the elder children, then their parents. According to the report, the mother was stabbed and then shot, though the assailants were said to have brought only knives to the home. The indictment was quoted as saying that the two later returned to collect their weapons, at which point the infant child of the Fogel family was slain to stifle cries. Neither the military website nor the Israeli press gave a date for the trial. On Sunday, Israeli military released a statement on the completion of an investigation into the actions of soldiers before, during and after the murders, when the village of Awarta was put under a curfew for five consecutive days, and rounded up hundreds of residents during home-to-home raids and collecting forced DNA samples. The statement on the investigation revealed few details, but the military's Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz expressed "appreciation of the security forces that operated to apprehend the assailants," though the two had not yet been indicted or tried. A military front man told Ma'an on Thursday, that it was common practice for the army to identify suspects as "assailants," and said the two were awaiting trial at a military court in the northern West Bank. |
| Posted by:Fred |