JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian man was sentenced to life in prison for killing an Israeli soldier by dropping a marble slab on his head.
Staff Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky, 20, of the elite Duvdevan unit, died on May 26, 2018, two days after Islam Yousef Abu Hamid dropped the slab on his head from three floors up during an army raid on a Palestinian refugee camp near Ramallah. The raid targeted members of a terror cell involved in recent attacks and shootings against Israelis.
Abu Hamid, who was arrested two weeks after Lubarsky’s death, was sentenced on Sunday and ordered to pay Lubarsky’s family $72,900 in compensation. He was convicted by an Israeli military court in April.
Lubarsky’s father, Vladimir, called the sentence a “shame and an embarrassment for the Israeli justice system,” and called for the death penalty.
The family also called for compensation of $1.4 million, which is the sum they estimated would be paid to Abu Hamid by the Palestinian Authority for his time in jail.
The Israel Defense Forces in December razed Abu Hamid’s family home in Ramallah.
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