Palestinian terrorists sentenced to life for brutal murder of Israeli

The court handed down life sentences to Palestinians who killed their employer Reuven Schmerling.

By: World Israel News Staff

The Central District Court sentenced to life imprisonment two Palestinian terrorists who stabbed and beat Reuven Shmerling to death last October.

Yousef Kamil and Mohammed Abu al-Roub, both of Kabatiya in Samaria, will also be required to pay NIS 250,000 in damages.

Outside the courtroom, Schmerling’s family praised the court’s decision to hand down the maximum sentence.

The 69-year-old Schmerling was a resident of Elkana in Samaria. He was stabbed and beaten to death by two men who were his employees at their workplace in the Arab-Israeli city of Kafr Kassem on October 4.

The assailants were convicted in March after taking a plea bargain.

According to the indictment, the two men entered Israel illegally in September 2017.

Kamil had planned to use his stay in Israel to carry out a terror attack and kill a Jew and asked Abu al-Roub if he wanted to take part.

According to the plan, detailed in the indictment, the two agreed that Abu al-Roub would set up Schmerling by leading him into a pre-arranged room under the pretext that the refrigerator was broken. Kamil would then attack Schmerling, stabbing the elderly man.

When Kamil began stabbing Schmerling, he picked up a chair in the room and hit Kamil.

Abu al-Roub joined Kamil in attacking Schmerling. He hit him with a fan while Kamil stabbed him in torso. At one point he left the room and returned with pickax.

When the knife bent Kamil threw it on the floor and took the pickax from al-Roub.

The house of Abu al-Roub was destroyed by the IDF in December 2017 to deter future terror attacks.

Kafr KassemPalestinian terrorReuven Shmerling