Palestinian terrorist confesses to Ofra, Givat Assaf attacks
Assam Barghouti was arrested a month after the deadly attacks which claimed the lives of two IDF soldiers and an unborn baby.
By ANNA AHRONHEIMThe baby that died after the Ofra attack (bottom left) being laid to rest at the Mount of Olives cemetry, December 12th, 2018(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
A Palestinian man has confessed to carrying out several deadly terror attacks last year, which claimed the lives of two IDF soldiers and an unborn baby in the West Bank.Assam Barghouti confessed during a hearing at the Ofer Military Court to the murder of Amiad Ish-Ran outside the settlement of Ofra, and St.-Sgt. Yuval Mor Yosef and Sgt. Yosef Cohen at the Givat Assaf Junction in two separate attacks in December 2018. Another IDF soldier, Silver Spring, MD-born Pvt. Netanel Felber, was critically wounded in the Givat Assaf attack.Barghouti also confessed to other charges.Ilanit and Motti Mor Yosef, the parents of IDF soldier, Yovel Mor Yosef, who was murdered by Barghouti, did not attend the hearing but called for the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of carrying out terror attacks.“We are pleased that the circus in the military courts is coming to an end. From our point of view, once the decision was made not to request the death penalty for the murderer, we knew that justice would neither be seen nor done,” they said in a statement. “The murderer was a ticking bomb, and we are sad that he was not killed instead of being arrested. It is time to change the policy on the death penalty, and restore the deterrence of the State of Israel, which does not exist.”Barghouti carried out the attack at Givat Assaf just days after he and his brother, Salah Barghouti, shot seven Israelis in a drive-by-shooting attack in the settlement of Ofra, just north of Givat Assaf. Amiad Ish-Ran, who was delivered prematurely as a result of the attack, died three days later.Salah Barghouti was killed during his attempted arrest on December 11 in a joint operation by the IDF, Israel Police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Service) in the West Bank village of Abu Shukheidim north of Ramallah, at the home of one of his associates a month after the deadly attacks.According to the Shin Bet, Assam had been planning additional attacks when he was arrested and was found with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, large amounts of ammunition and night vision equipment.
