Palestinian who killed soldier with marble slab indicted

Israel will continue to bring to justice anyone who attacks or tries to attack Israeli civilians or IDF soldiers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following Hamid’s arrest in mid-June.
By Yonah Jeremy Bob, Anna Ahronheim

The IDF West Bank prosecution on Thursday filed an indictment for murder against a Palestinian man who threw a large marble slab onto IDF troops, leading to the death of a 20-year-old soldier from the Duvdevan unit in late May.

In addition, the IDF prosecution filed a motion to keep Islam Yusuf Abu Hamid in custody until the end of the trial against him.

Ronen Lubarsky’s brother Arik called for the death penalty.

“Israel is allowing terrorists to continue living it up at our expense,” he said. “They receive lavish benefits in prison, grants from the Palestinian Authority, food supplies from the Red Cross that would put a luxury restaurant in Tel Aviv to shame, and living conditions that families in need could only dream about. We need to end this celebration.”

“Four of the terrorist’s brothers are also sitting in Israeli prison,” added Arik Lubarsky. “We have only one demand from the military advocate-general: the death penalty for this terrorist.”

During the interrogation of Hamid, a 32-year-old resident of the Am’ari refugee camp in Ramallah, by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), they concluded that he had thrown the slab that hit St.-Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky from the roof of a nearby building.

Israel will continue to bring to justice anyone who attacks or tries to attack Israeli civilians or IDF soldiers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following Hamid’s arrest in mid-June.



“A Duvdevan soldier is the one who was killed, and Duvdevan is the unit that apprehended the terrorist,” Netanyahu said.

Duvdevan is an elite counter terrorism commando unit.

Lubarsky, from Rehovot, was seriously wounded when he was hit on the head by a large slab of marble during an operation aimed at arresting a terrorist cell involved in recent shooting attacks.

The IDF carries out nearly nightly raids across the West Bank, detaining Palestinian suspects wanted for terrorist attacks, illegal weapons possession and other security-related offenses. According to a report released in March by various Palestinian prisoners rights groups, the IDF arrested 1,319 Palestinians during the months of January and February 2018.

The soldier, who was part of the operation’s covering force, received initial emergency medical attention in the field and was transferred to intensive care at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, where he succumbed to his wounds two days later.

An IDF official stated that Lubarsky was wearing full protective gear and standing close to one of the homes in the refugee camp in Ramallah and that his helmet was “destroyed” after he was hit by the slab, which was thrown from a third-story rooftop.

One suspect was arrested during the May operation, and another two were arrested in mid-June.

According to the Shin Bet, Hamid’s brothers are Hamas operatives who have carried out a variety of attacks in the past that included the killing of Israelis, including Shin Bet operative Noam Cohen.

Cohen was killed during a security operation in Ramallah on February 13, 1994, when three Hamas operatives opened fire with automatic weapons on the car he was traveling in at the Beitunya junction. Although the car was hit by 62 bullets, Cohen still was able to step outside of the vehicle to return fire, where he was shot and critically wounded.

Herb Keinon contributed to this report.
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