Prison for thieves who looted Nova massacre site

Separate cases reveal thefts by soldiers from comrades during the early days of the war.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Two men convicted of stealing personal belongings of Hamas victims at the Nova festival the day after the mass murder at the site have been sentenced to prison time and a hefty fine.

The Be’er Sheva Magistrate’s Court came down hard on Meir Hajaj and Golan Jerbi for pretending to be among those who rushed to the site where 347 partygoers were slaughtered in order to help find survivors, but looted belongings instead.

In his ruling, Judge Amir Doron wrote that “the morning after October 7, 2023, was one of the most difficult days in the country’s history,” and that the defendants had “failed in a disgraceful and particularly severe manner on the moral and ethical level.”

“They coarsely trampled on every element of basic human compassion,” he said.

The pair stole jewelry and other personal items from massacre victims “while the blood of those victims cried out from the ground before them,” Doron wrote, calling the acts far more egregious than ordinary theft.

Stealing from a massacre scene is a particularly severe “infringement on the sanctity of life” that “erodes social trust and the sense of [national] solidarity,” the judge said.

Hajaj and Jerbi were both sentenced to 38 months in prison, a fine of NIS 45,000 and were handed a suspended sentence as well.

In other disturbing cases of theft from the early days of the war, Makor Rishon recently revealed that IDF soldiers stole from fellow servicemembers at military posts near the Gaza border.

Beginning on Oct. 7, Nahal Brigade units fought Hamas terrorists for a week before placing their valuables in sealed lockers ahead of a transfer to another combat zone.

When they returned days later, they found the lockers broken into and items such as wallets, phones, necklaces and credit cards missing.

According to the report, which examined military court rulings, the thefts were carried out by soldiers from the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion, which had replaced the Nahal forces at the posts.

The report noted that this was not an isolated incident.

Twelve days after the invasion, two sergeants from the same battalion stole four credit cards from lockers in the Sufa post, including one belonging to a soldier who fell in battle on Oct. 7.

One of the soldiers passed the card details to a relative who attempted to use them, succeeding in several transactions.

In another case, a Bedouin squad commander stole a laptop from a locked container belonging to the deputy company commander of the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion, Capt. Omer Wolf, who had fallen in battle.

The soldiers involved received sentences ranging from two months to nearly two years in prison, were fined, and in some cases demoted.

Judges emphasized “the seriousness and ugliness” of stealing from fellow soldiers during wartime, writing in one verdict that “exploiting the uncertainty and chaos caused by the war is a despicable and criminal act.”