Two Palestinian brothers convicted in murder of IDF soldier Tomer Hazan

Nedal Amar lured his co-worker Hazan to the West Bank with promise of criminal score and then killed him.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Tomer Hazan (photo credit: Courtesy Hazan family)
Tomer Hazan
(photo credit: Courtesy Hazan family)
Nedal Amar, the Palestinian man who lured 20-year-old soldier Sgt. Tomer Hazan to the West Bank in mid-September, and his brother Abd al-Salam were convicted for Hazan’s murder in the Samaria Military Court, the IDF announced on Thursday.
The actual conviction was handed down on Wednesday.
Nedal, 42, and Abd al-Salam both confessed to murder and kidnapping and to facilitating murder and kidnapping, and to other charges.
The IDF prosecution will seek life in prison for Nedal, who committed the killing, on June 25, while Abd al-Salam’s sentencing date is not yet set.
Nedal had told security forces that he led Hazan, whom he was friendly with and worked with at a Bat Yam restaurant, to the West Bank, where he killed him, and hoped to secure the release of another brother, Nur al-Din Amar – a terrorist arrested in 2003 for being part of a suicide bombing attack cell – by offering to return the soldier’s body.
Nur al-Din Amar lured Hazan to the West Bank by promising him the reward of a minor criminal score, something that never happened, according to security sources.
Nur al-Din had initially pressed Nedal to kidnap a soldier in 2012 in order to gain his release in a Gilad Schalit-style prisoner swap.
There is no evidence that Nedal was involved with prior criminal activity and at Thursday’s hearing he told the press that he hoped Tomer Hazan was “the last victim.”
At Nedal’s instruction, Salam handed Nedal his belt, which Nedal then used to strangle Hazan to death over several minutes in which Hazan resisted.