Terrorist Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for Multiple Murder in Gush Etzion

An Israeli court sentenced the terrorist Muhammad Haruv to four life-in-prison terms for the murders of Ezra Schwartz Hy”d and Yaakov Don Hy”d, Shadi Arafa Hy”d and Yuval Lasri Hy”d in Gush Etzion in November 2015.

Schwartz, 18, was a yeshiva student visiting Israel; Don, 49, a teacher and father of four, lived in nearby Alon Shvut.

Haruv drove through the Gush Etzion junction and opened fire with an automatic rifle at cars before ramming a vehicle with his car. Security forces then surrounded the car and arrested him.

Magen David Adom said that five friends of Schwartz from Yeshivat Ashreinu in Beit Shemesh, where he studied, who were with him at the time, were also taken for hospital treatment at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Yerushalayim. Three of them sustained light wounds, two were treated for shock, and then released.

They had arrived in the area to distribute food to soldiers stationed there.

Two Israeli women, one lightly injured from the gunfire and another from the car accident, were kept overnight in Shaare Zedek and then released.

Haruv was also fined 750,000 shekels, to be paid to the bereaved families.