Samaria District Military Court on Tuesday convicted Palestinian youth Hakim Awad of murdering five members of the Fogel family in their West Bank home last March. Hakim Awad and his alleged accomplice Amjad Awad were tried for the murder of five members of the Fogel family, residents of the Itamar settlement near Nablus. The two allegedly infiltrated the settlement from their nearby village of Awarta. The Samaria District Military Court charged Hakim Awad, 18, with premeditated murder, illegal trade of military equipment, obstruction of justice, and conspiring to commit a crime. He pleaded guilty. Despite this guilty plea, presiding judge Menachem Lieberman decided to take an unusual step and ordered the re-examination of evidence to verify that it correlated with facts found at the scene of the crime. "We suspect, as outrageous as it may sound, that the man took responsibility for the murders just for the glory of it," Menachem said. Awad will attend a hearing in September, at which the surviving members of the Fogel family may relate their account of that fateful night. Court proceedings for Awad's accomplice, Amjad, are also underway.
According to the indictment, the two broke into the Fogels' home and entered a room where Yoav, 11, was apparently woken up by their entrance. They covered his mouth, took him to another room, and slashed his throat. Hakim allegedly then strangled 4-year-old Elad and Amjad stabbed him twice.
The indictment says the two then entered the room where the parents were, and repeatedly stabbed the father Ehud in the neck. The mother, Ruth, was stabbed as well, and then shot when the two realized she hadn't die from her stab wounds.
At that point, the two were said to have left the house, but returned to retrieve their weapons. That is when Amjad allegedly heard the cries of 3-month-old Hadas, found the baby, and stabbed her in the head.
