Convicted Killer of Palestinian Teenager Dies in Hospital

Yosef Haim Ben-David, who was convicted of the brutal murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, died on Thursday in a hospital. Ben-David, 42, from Jerusalem, was serving time in the "HaSharon" prison. The Israel Prison Service stated that an "investigative team has been appointed."

Mohammed Abu Khdeir's burnt body was discovered on July 2, 2014. The Palestinian youth had been preparing for Ramadan and left his home in East Jerusalem early that morning. He encountered Ben-David, who murdered and burned him in an act of revenge for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in Gush Etzion a month earlier.

In a 2019 interview from Nitzan prison, Ben-David discussed the murder and his attempts to receive a pardon. Despite explicit court findings, he maintained he was insane. "I want them to reopen the case," he declared. "I don't deserve to sit for something I didn't do consciously." He recounted his interrogations, stating he was deprived of sleep for four consecutive days and repeatedly claimed to remember nothing. Ben-David described the morning of his arrest as pleasant, stating he opened his door willingly, only to be handcuffed, assaulted in front of his children, and informed of his arrest.

"He burned the whole family," stated Hussein Abu Khdeir, the victim's father, expressing his deep emotional distress. Ben-David had previously apologized to the Abu Khdeir family, saying he kept a picture of Mohammed by his bed and prayed daily for forgiveness.

In February 2018, the Supreme Court rejected appeals from Ben-David and his accomplices, upholding their sentences. The court dismissed claims of insanity by Ben-David and lack of intent by his underage nephews, citing their own accounts of a premeditated plan to kidnap and murder a Palestinian as revenge for the June 2014 abduction and murder of the three Israeli teens.

In April 2016, the Jerusalem District Court convicted Ben-David, ruling he was responsible for his actions, contrary to his defense's claims of incompetence. The court determined he understood and controlled his actions. In November 2015, his two underage nephews, who participated in the abduction and murder, were convicted. One received a life sentence in February 2015, and the other received 21 years. The indictment stated that the day after the bodies of the abducted Israeli teens were found, the three embarked on a revenge mission. After failing to abduct a woman and child, they returned the next day, spotted Abu Khdeir alone, forced him into their car, beat him unconscious, took him to the Jerusalem Forest, beat him again, and then burned him alive while he was unconscious.