Netanyahu Calls for Death Penalty for Palestinians Responsible for Killing Israelis

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday, August 5, while visiting the Solomon family, whose three members were killed by a Palestinian attacker last week, stated that in cases of the brutal murder of Israeli citizens, the killers should face the death penalty. According to Israeli media, Netanyahu said, "The death penalty (in the military court laws of Israel) has a legal basis, and judges must unanimously consider this sentence." The Prime Minister added that if judges want to know the government's opinion, he believes that in cases like the recent murder, the death penalty should be implemented. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman also expressed his support for the execution of Palestinians who kill Israeli citizens. Israel Katz, Minister of Information, and Naftali Bennett, Minister of Education, had previously called for the death penalty for the murderer of the Israeli family. Historically, Israel has only witnessed the execution of Adolf Eichmann, the deputy of Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany. Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis are sentenced to life imprisonment in Israeli courts, but some have been released in subsequent deals between Israel and various Palestinian and Lebanese organizations. The Prime Minister's demand and that of several Israeli ministers for the death penalty has emerged in the wake of the brutal murder of the Solomon family, which has shaken public opinion in the country. Aamer Abdul Abed, a nineteen-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank, entered the home of the Solomon family in the Jewish settlement of "Halamish" on July 30, killing the seventy-year-old father, the forty-five-year-old daughter, and the forty-year-old son, while injuring the sixty-eight-year-old mother. The Solomon family members had gathered that night to celebrate the birth of a new grandchild, and the door was left open for guests. One of the family brides had hidden the young children in a room on the second floor during the initial moments of the Palestinian attack on the adults, but the father of these children, the forty-year-old son of the Solomon family, was among the deceased. An Israeli soldier on leave, at his parents' house nearby, heard the screams of the Solomon family and managed to shoot and injure Aamer Abdul Abed from the window, preventing further deaths in the family. Aamer Abdul Abed was handed over to Israeli internal security interrogators the day after the attack, following treatment in an Israeli hospital. Hours before heading to the Jewish settlement, Aamer Abdul Abed had posted on his Facebook page that life is not worth living while Al-Aqsa Mosque is being desecrated. The Al-Aqsa crisis began on July 23 with the killing of two Arab Israeli police officers in an armed attack by three Arab citizens of Israel at the entrance to Al-Aqsa in East Jerusalem, but it escalated following increased security measures by Israel. In the following days, in addition to the murder of three members of the Israeli family, several Palestinian protesters were also killed. Despite Israel lifting all recent security measures around Al-Aqsa on Thursday and Palestinians resuming prayers at the mosque, clashes in the area continue.