The Samaria Military Court on Tuesday convicted 18- year-old Hakim Awad for the
murder of five members of the Fogel family in the Itamar settlement. The victims
include three children between three months and 11 years of age, and their
parents, Ehud and Ruth.
Awad admitted to the charges against him in the
indictment, according to which he and another youth, Amjad Awad, murdered the
Fogel family in March.
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PalestiniansFogel murderers provide account of Itamar
massacreDespite the fact that Hakim Awad, a high school
student, had confessed his part in the murder to security services and the
court, Judge Lt- Colonel Menahem Lieberman nevertheless decided to examine
detailed evidence gathered by the prosecution, including forensic findings, in
order to rule out that Awad had lied about his part in the crime for
“glory.”
Hakim Awad was also convicted of weapons offenses and various
other security offenses.
The two youths were arrested in April following
an intensive, large-scale investigation by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency),
the IDF’s elite Duvdevan Unit and forensic officers from the police’s Special
Intelligence Branch.
Although the youths carried out the attack on their
own initiative, they are affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PLFP) terror group, and received significant assistance from family
members and friends after the attack, the IDF said.
The following account
of the massacre is based on confessions and a reenactment of the attack by the
Hakim Awad and Amjad Awad, and a painstaking investigation led by the Shin
Bet.
On the night of March 11, as the Fogel family slept in their home in
Itamar, Hakim and Amjad Awad set out from the village of Awarta, two kilometers
to the south, armed with knives, face masks and a wire cutter.
The two
planned to carry out the murders of Israelis days before, and made unsuccessful
attempts to obtain firearms from a member of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of PFLP representative in their village. But the lack of guns did not
dissuade the two from carrying out their plan to murder Israelis.
The
youths set out from their village on foot, and after a kilometer, they cut a
wire fence around Itamar, climbed over a forest hilltop, and reached a row of
homes in the settlement.
They first entered a home adjacent to the Fogel
residence, but found that nobody was there. They stole an M-16 rifle from the
home, ammunition and body armor before walking on down the street.
The
youths then saw the Fogel-family residence, and spotted children sleeping
through the window.
Immediately after entering the home, the youths set
their knives on two young brothers sleeping in their beds, fouryear- old Elad
and 11-year-old Yoav, killing them both.
They then entered the parents’
bedroom, where they launched a knife attack on Ehud and Ruth Fogel. The parents
fought back, attempting to fend off the attackers, but died of their stab wounds
during the struggle.
The two then left the house, before hearing cries
from three-month-old baby Hadas.
Awoken by the attack, the baby lay in
her crib in her parents’ bedroom.
“They went back into the house and
stabbed the baby to death to silence her cries,” a security source
said.
Two other children remained in the home, but were spared because
Hakim and Amjad did not know of their presence. Amjad later told interregators
that he would have killed them too had he known that they were in the
home.
After murdering five members of the family, the suspects walked
back to the village, and told Hakim’s uncle, PFLP member Salah Adin Awad, what
they did.
Salah hid their firearms, and instructed them to burn their
bloody clothes.
The youths then resumed their daily lives, while Salah
sent the weapons to a friend in Ramallah, Jad Avid, who hid the guns in his
home.
The military court is expected to reconvene at a later date to hear
arguments for sentencing Hakim Awad.
The second youth indicted in the
massacre, Amjad Awad, will be tried separately, because he and Hakim have
testified against each other and therefore cannot legally be tried
together.
According to a spokesperson for the IDF, Amjad Awad will be
tried on August 16.