Israeli military court convicts Palestinian terrorist in woman’s murder

The Samaria Military Court on Wednesday convicted a Palestinian man who confessed to killing Israeli Esther Horgen in a terror attack late last year.

The court found Muhammad Mruh Kabha guilty of intentionally causing Horgen’s death as well as various other offenses.

Horgen’s family responded in a statement, saying they were “satisfied with the conviction of the terrorist.”

“The terrorist should get his punishment with the full severity of the law and rot behind bars till the end of his days,” the statement said.

The family went on to accuse the Palestinian Authority of being responsible for Horgen’s murder, by “encouraging terror with blood libels and education to hate and kill, and by paying enormous sums to terrorists and their families after the act.”

The PA pays monthly wages to Palestinians who are in prison for carrying out attacks on Israelis and to their families if the attackers are killed.

In February this year, the IDF demolished Kabha’s home in the village of Tura al-Gharbiya, near Jenin in the northern West Bank.

According to court papers, on December 20, 2020, Horgen, 52, a mother of six, went for a hike in the Reihan forest, near her home in the Tal Menashe settlement. Kabha, who had been waiting in the area for a potential victim to pass by, ran after her and knocked her to the ground. Horgen tried to fight him off but he pinned her down and then repeatedly hit her over the head with large rocks, causing her to bleed and breaking bones in her arms and chest, until she stopped moving.

Horgen’s body was found in the early hours of the next morning after her husband, Benjamin, reported her missing.

Kabha escaped and was captured after a four-day manhunt.

According to the Shin Bet security agency, Kabha carried out the terror attack as a form of vengeance for the death of a security prisoner, Kamel Abu Waer, who died of cancer six weeks before.

Source: TOI