The Hamas terrorist behind the kidnapping and killings of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel last June was sentenced to three life terms by a military court yesterday, The Times of Israel reported. In addition to jail, Hussam Kawasme was ordered to pay NIS 250,000 to the three bereaved families.
Avraham Fraenkel, father of one of the victims, pleaded with the court for a harsh sentence.
“Unlike a normal murder, if there is such a thing, there was another component here — 18 days passed from the murder until the bodies were found,” Fraenkel said, according to the Walla news website. “Searches, hope, despair — anguish. We all looked for them, and he knew and was silent.”
“I ask your honor for a full and comprehensive punishment, using all the means at your disposal, due to the severity of the case here,” he added.
Kawasme was arrested and confessed to arranging funding and providing weapons for the attack in August. He was convicted last week. He and his brother Mahmoud, a Hamas terrorist based in Gaza, have both been accused by the Shin Bet of hatching the plot.
The kidnappers Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme, the latter a cousin of the mastermind, were killed in a shootout with Israeli security forces in September.
Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas’ representative in Turkey and the terror group’s operative in charge of operations in the West Bank, boasted in September that Hamas was behind the kidnapping and murders.
The conviction comes at a time of conflicting reports that another leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, is headed to Turkey.
In Where the Shadiest Players Find a Home, which was published in the August 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, Jonathan Schanzer exposed how Hamas operated openly within Turkey, a member of NATO.
Then there is the presence of the aforementioned Saleh al-Arouri. The Israeli news website Ynet reported last year that Arouri “operates out of Turkey, with the backing of the Turkish government.” While Arouri’s activities are generally below the radar, it is believed that he is raising funds for Hamas. Last year, the Israel Security Agency (Shabak) announced the arrest of two Palestinians involved in smuggling money for Hamas from Jordan to the West Bank. During their interrogation, the suspects ceded that some of the money was being smuggled on behalf of Arouri.
Arouri is also believed to be in charge of Hamas’ operations in the West Bank. In January, a senior Israeli military official confirmed this when he told Israel Hayom that Hamas’ recent West Bank operations are “directed from Gaza via Turkey.” More recently, in August, the Israelis announced that Arouri was at the center of a plot to bring down the Palestinian Authority government of Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. Arouri recruited the leader of the operation, according to reports.
Despite all of this, or perhaps because of it, Arouri is held in high regard in Turkey. In March 2012, for example, he was part of a Hamas delegation that took part in talks with Turkish officials, including then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The following October, Arouri joined Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal for a high-level meeting with Erdoğan in Ankara.
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