A Jerusalem district court has convicted the main suspect in the July 2014 murder of an east Jerusalem Arab teenager. The court convicted 30-year-old Yosef Haim Ben-David on Tuesday of murder, rejecting a plea that he was not responsible for his actions due to insanity. Ben David is to be sentenced on May 3. Two other Israelis have already been sentenced for their roles in the murder of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khdeir in revenge for the death of three abducted Israeli teens at the hands of Hamas terrorists earlier that summer. One was sentenced to life imprisonment and the other to a 21-year jail term. The three Israelis snatched Abu Khdeir from the east Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Shuafat, drove him to a Jerusalem forest and burned him to death. Prosecutors said Ben-David organized the killing. The gruesome killing sparked deep outrage and was part of a series of events that helped spark Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip later that summer.
