Israeli prosecutors on Thursday filed an indictment against 38-year-old Uriya Cohen, a farm owner from Izhar, over violence in Huwara. According to the charge sheet, Cohen entered the West Bank town looking for his missing flock of sheep, with a masked passenger beside him, and both were armed with assault rifles.
Prosecutors say Cohen then brought additional people to the scene, including one wearing IDF uniform and a military helmet. “For no apparent reason and without legal authority,” Cohen blocked a Palestinian car, causing a crash, then got out and pointed rifles at the passengers in an apparent attempt to intimidate them. He fired into the air, and as the Palestinian vehicle fled, the masked passenger fired at it.
The indictment also says others, including the masked man and the person in IDF uniform, approached a second car carrying Huwara residents. They pulled two Palestinians from the vehicle and, together with the masked man, beat them with fists, clubs and rifle butts. Both victims were badly injured.
Afterward, Cohen reportedly collected shell casings from the road in an effort to obstruct the investigation, and left the area with some of the other participants, leaving the wounded men by the roadside. Cohen is charged with firing a gun in a residential area in a way that could endanger lives, threats, reckless conduct, and obstruction of justice, among other offenses. Prosecutors asked the court to keep him in custody until the end of proceedings.
