Second Itamar murderer sentenced to 5 life terms

2 Palestinians with bombs caught en route to court.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Suspects in Fogel, Itamar massacre_311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Suspects in Fogel, Itamar massacre_311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
The Samaria District Military Court on Monday sentenced Amjad Awad, one of two cousins convicted of brutally murdering five Fogel family members in the Itamar settlement last March, to five life terms and seven years in prison.
Awad and Hakim Awad, entered the home of the Fogels, stabbing and shooting to death parents Udi and Ruth, and killing three of their children: Elad, 11, Yoav, 4, and four-month-old Hadas.
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Hakim, 18, received his sentence in September, when the same court sentenced him to five life sentences and five years in prison.
The defendants confessed to stabbing and shooting the Fogels after they broke into Itamar, which is adjacent to their village, Awarta.
Both places are near Nablus.
“I don’t regret what I did, and would do it again,” Amjad Awad said in May.
“I’m proud of what I did and I’ll accept any punishment I get, even death, because I did it all for Palestine.”
Also on Monday, border police intercepted two Palestinians carrying 11 pipe bombs who were likely on their way to carry out an attack at the court where Awad was being sentenced.
The suspects, both in their 20s, were trying to cross the Salim checkpoint near Jenin, when their nervous conduct aroused the suspicions of a veteran officer.
“They were placed in a bomb-proof examination hut for a search, but did not cooperate,” Border Police spokesman Supt. Shai Hakimi told The Jerusalem Post.
Security personnel became even more suspicious and declared a “situation bell,” which is code for a strip search of suspects thought to be carrying weapons. The search revealed 11 pipe bombs, a homemade gun and ammunition.
The suspects were arrested, and the explosives were detonated in a controlled explosion by Border Police bomb squad officers. Last week, Palestinians tried to cross the same checkpoint with pipe bombs, and were apprehended by the same Border Police officer.