Hadas Mizrahi; Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
Tuesday, September 8, 2020, 17:19 The Ofer Military Court of Appeals has accepted the appeal filed by the Military Advocate General, who objected to the low sum of compensation that the Military Court in Yehuda obligated Ziad Awad to pay the families of his victims. The amount of compensation has been significantly increased.
Awad murdered Police Commander Baruch Mizrahi, Hy”d, and injured others in an April 2014 terror attack. Mizrahi and his family were traveling on Route 35 to Kiryat Arba to celebrate the Passover Seder there. Awad opened fire, killing Mizrahi and injuring others. The terrorist was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Ofer Military Court of Appeals ruled that the terrorist will pay Mizrahi’s family compensation of over one and a half million NIS, and will pay large sums to other victims who were injured in the attack.
Before the September 8 deliberation, Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher stated, “The terrorist was released in the Shalit Deal and received a second opportunity to carry out his murderous plots. Being as the current policy is not to hand down death sentences, despite a clear need to do so, we are demanding that at least the penalty be tightened in other ways, for example imposing a higher sum of compensation for the victims of terror who were awarded a low sum by the first court.”
At the previous deliberation in the case, Hadas Mizrahi, the widow of Baruch Mizrahi, mentioned that four of her five children were present at the attack, and still feel its effects: “It [the attack] simply lives with them and will be with them until the end. The attack was horrific. Until this day I remember the screams, all of the children screaming. We don’t have a life. Everything is gone. We had been a normative family.”
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing the Mizrahi family as victims of terror: “We are pleased that the appeal filed by the prosecution concerning the compensation was accepted. This is an important precedent. The court has indicated that there is an obligation to impose payment of significant compensation to victims of terror who are entitled to damages. We expect the State of Israel to ensure that it will be possible to exact the court-awarded compensation by means of imposing liens on the salaries which the terrorists receive from the Palestinian Authority.”
On April 14, 2014, Police Commander Baruch Mizrahi, Hy”d, and his family were traveling on Route 35 to Kiryat Arba to celebrate the Passover Seder there when Awad opened fire, killing Mizrahi and injuring others. The terrorist was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Military Advocate General has requested that the court increase the amount of compensation he is obligated to pay the family. During the course of the deliberations Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is representing Hadas Mizrahi, Baruch’s widow, and her family as victims of terror, submitted a calculation of damages totaling ten million NIS.