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Honenu Attorney Bleicher; Photo credit: Honenu
Sunday, January 16, 2022, 12:08 In early January, the Lod District Court ordered the remand until the end of proceedings of four of the suspects of the murder of Yigal Yehoshua, Hy”d. They agreed to the order and reserved their right to request a reexamination of their case. Regarding three additional suspects, the court will hand down a decision later this month. All seven suspects are charged with attacking Jewish passengers in cars with cement blocks and rocks near an events hall in Lod during the Arab rioting at the time of Operation Guardian of the Walls. Yehoshua, who was driving one of the cars, died of injuries sustained from the rock attack.
During the hearing, the attorneys of the terrorists complained that the investigation had been carried out by the GSS and that the incident was classified as an act of terror. The attorneys claimed that the defendants were “normative individuals,” and some of them added that because of the GSS investigation, it is not possible to rely on the confessions of the defendants. The attorneys also claimed that it is not known which rock hit the victim, and therefore not all of the terrorists should be charged with murder.
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher, who is assisting the victim’s brother, Effi Yehoshua, was present at the hearing and objected to the claims: “All seven terrorists were full participants in the murder. How is there any basis for not holding all of them in remand until the end of proceedings? The despicable terrorists verified the Jewish identity of the victim, Hy”d, prior to carrying out their plot. The very thought of releasing them damages the deterrence factor against terror. These are terrorists who pose an immediate danger to all Jewish Israeli citizens. Additionally, these terrorists are likely to be imprisoned for life, which reinforces the likelihood that they would carry out another attack, because they could not be penalized further.”
The bill of indictment is summarized below:
Most of the defendants worked at the events hall, which is owned by the Hasuna family, from which they carried out the attack. Two of the defendants are members of the Hasuna family and two others entered Lod from the regions of Yehuda and Shomron without the requisite permits. Before the attack itself, rioters set fires on the sides of the road in order to slow traffic. As drivers slowed down, the rioters examined the identity of the cars’ passengers and reported to the defendants whether the passengers were Jews or Arabs.
The defendants gathered together with the goal of throwing rocks at cars belonging to Jews. Their goal was to damage the cars and injure the passengers. They were indifferent to the possibility of causing deaths and their motivation was nationalistic.
Yehoshua, Hy”d, was driving his car in the area in which the defendants had gathered, and was identified as a Jew. The defendants hurled a number of rocks at his car from close range. The rocks hit the car. One of the rocks shattered the back left window and another rock hit the left front window, shattered it, and hit Yehoshua’s head hard. Due to the direct hit to his head, he decelerated and veered into the opposite lane. The defendants approached the car and noticed that the driver was injured.
With the end of his strength, Yigal Yehoshua succeeded in driving home, and in the parking lot, he lost consciousness, never to regain it. Yehoshua suffered serious brain damage from the injury and his death was determined six days later.
After the defendants noticed that they had hit the driver of the car, they discussed among themselves concealing the security cameras at the site in order to disrupt the investigation. One of the defendants disconnected the security cameras at an adjacent events hall and transferred the DVR from the cameras to another defendant.
Afterwards, the defendants continued to throw rocks at cars with Jewish passengers. By their actions, the defendants jointly and indifferently caused the death of the deceased.