Terror suspect Asem Barghouti indicted over deadly West Bank attacks

A Palestinian man was charged with three murder counts Monday over a pair of December terror attacks that led to the deaths of two soldiers and an unborn baby, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Asem Barghouti was arrested in January and accused of carrying out a shooting attack on a bus stop near the outpost of Givat Assaf on December 13 and of assisting his brother Salih in a shooting attack on a bus stop near the Ofra settlement on December 9.

Two soldiers, Sgt. Yosef Cohen and Staff Sgt. Yovel Mor Yosef, were killed in the Givat Assaf attack. Another soldier, Israeli-American Netanel Felber, was seriously injured and Shira Sabag, a civilian woman, was also hurt in the shooting.

Seven people were injured in the Ofra attack, including a seven-months pregnant woman who was seriously wounded. Doctors delivered her baby boy in an emergency operation, but he died days later despite intensive efforts to save him.

The charge sheet, filed at the Judea Military Court in the West Bank, accuses Barghouti of various grave offenses, including three counts of intentionally causing death — the military court’s equivalent of murder — and several counts of attempts to intentionally cause death.

The court accepted the prosecution’s request to keep Barghouti detained until the end of the trial.

Last Thursday, Israeli troops razed Barghouti’s home in the West Bank town of Kobar, near Ramallah, in a predawn operation.

His brother Salih, also from Kobar, was killed by Israeli troops during an attempted arrest on December 12.

Source: TOI