Palestinians charged with murder of settler family

AFP , Sunday 5 Jun 2011

They confessed to committing the acts and incriminated one another, military says

Two Palestinians have been charged with the grisly murder of a young Israeli family stabbed to death in a West Bank settlement, the Israeli military said on Sunday.

Its website said military prosecutors charged Hakim Awad and a relative, Amjad Awad, both from the West Bank village of Awarta, with the murder of five members of the Fogel family: three-month-old Hadas, four-year-old Elad, 11-year-old Yoav, and their parents Udi and Ruthie.

In addition to the frenzied March 11 stabbing attack at the Itamar settlement near Awarta, the men were also charged with stealing weapons, breaking and entering, and conspiracy to commit a crime, the military said.

"They confessed to committing the acts and incriminated one another," the website said, quoting the chargesheet. "Also, fingerprints and DNA material of the two were found at the (Fogel) family home."

The Ynet news website quoted Amjad Awad as saying he had no remorse, as he was led into a military court in the West Bank for the indictment.

"I'm proud of what I did," it quoted him as saying."I don't regret what I did."

Neither the military website nor Ynet gave a date for the trial.

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