The Israeli Ofer Military Court sentenced on Sunday resident Waseem Maswada, from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, to twelve and a half years as he faced “attempted murder” charges for stabbing two settlers. After the stabbing, Waseem was attacked by several settlers, one of whom rammed him with his vehicle, and ran over him three times; the settler was sentenced to 3.5 months community service.
Maswada faced two counts of attempted murder charges as the prosecution said that, on November 17, 2009, he arrived by a Palestinian Taxi at a Gas Station at the entrance of Keryat Arba’ settlement in Hebron, and immediately after exiting the cab, he stabbed a woman who works at a shop in the station, and then he was involved in a scuffle with a customer and stabbed him too before he was shot and wounded by a security guard.
A surveillance video that was broadcast by Israel’s Channel 2 shows Maswada lying on the ground, soaked in his blood, surrounded by soldiers, settlers and medics, when the settler (the husband of the stabbed woman) rushed to his car, and drove it over the wounded body of Maswada over and over again. Several soldiers and medics at the scene were trying to have him to stop; the settler then stopped his vehicles while the Palestinian was lying beneath it next to the back left wheel.
He was hospitalized at the Hadassah Israeli hospital for more than four months due to serious injuries to his abdomen and legs.
The settler was sent to the District Court in Jerusalem and was sentenced on December 6th to three months community service.
He initially attacked a male settler thinking he was the Palestinian stabber, and when he realized his mistake, he drove his car over the wounded Palestinian, back and forth despite.
