Yehuda Guetta’s murderer convicted

Yehuda Guetta, Hy”d; Photo courtesy of the family

Tuesday, August 3, 2021, 12:52 Muntasir Shalabi, the terrorist who murdered Yehuda Guetta, Hy”d, and injured Amichai Hala and Binaya Peretz at Tapuah Junction on May 2, has admitted to all of the charges in the indictment filed against him. He was convicted of intentional homicide, (the equivalent of murder in a military court), three counts of attempted intentional homicide, unlawful production, possessing, carrying and use of a weapon and disruption of legal proceedings.
Yehuda’s father, Rabbi Elisha Guetta, spoke after the hearing: “The abhorrent terrorist admitted to everything. I have a feeling that there was leniency, because that shortens proceedings. It would be a shame to drag out something obvious. We know where they’re sending him, to a life-time of summer camp, if they don’t release him in some deal like we’ve seen so many times, and that’s a shame.”
Rabbi Guetta is of the opinion that the death penalty should be imposed on the terrorist: “This terrorist deserves death. The time has come for the judges, especially the military judges, to step outside of the box and decide to do what’s best for Israel, to maintain the sanity of the state. They must return to the accepted rulings of the military courts – sentencing to death contemptible people like this who sanctify death. We sanctify life.
“He murdered a young man, not yet 19, in cold blood. He deserves the death penalty. His family should be deported, and all of the abettors should get life imprisonment. They shouldn’t turn everything upside down. It is a shame that we are humiliating ourselves and not making the correct decisions.”
Honenu Attorney Chayim Bleicher: “Today a cruel terrorist was convicted of murdering a Jew and attempting to murder three other Jews, only because they were Jews. The State of Israel must stand up for itself and uncompromisingly fight Islamic terror. A terrorist such as this and the rest of his accomplices deserve the death penalty. It would be appropriate for the military court to hand down the death penalty.”
The bill of indictment details how approximately one month prior to the attack, Shalabi started to plan how he would murder Jewish soldiers or citizens. Shalabi wrote a will and informed his wife of its existence. The terrorist decided that Tapuah Junction was the most suitable location to carry out the attack due to the presence of many civilians and soldiers at the site. He trained with a pistol that was in his possession and planned to carry out the attack on Friday, April 30. Since he did not feel well that day, he postponed the attack to Saturday, and later to Sunday.
On the afternoon of Sunday, May 2, according to the bill of indictment, the terrorist loaded the magazine of his pistol with live bullets and took dozens more bullets with him. Shalabi loaded the full magazine into his pistol and cocked it so that it would be ready to fire. He entered his car and hid the pistol under a prayer rug on the front passenger seat. At approximately 18:00, the terrorist reached Tapuah Junction. He stopped his car near the bus stop, took his cocked pistol, called out “Allah akbar”, and fired many bullets through his open car window at close range towards the citizens at the bus stop. The terrorist stopped shooting only after the barrel of his pistol exploded and the pistol ceased functioning.
Soldiers at the intersection opened fire on Shalabi and injured him, but he succeeded in escaping. For four days, Shalabi hid in several locations in the town of Aqraba, where he informed his accessories of the attack he had carried out. The terrorist attempted to treat his injuries and to alter his appearance in order to thwart his apprehension by the security forces. Later, the terrorist reached one of his friends, who convinced him that he had no choice other than to give himself up to the security forces. A short time later Shalabi was apprehended by the security forces.
Three students from Yeshivat Itamar were injured in the attack, Yehuda Guetta, Hy”d, Binaya Peretz, and Amichai Hala. Guetta was critically injured by a bullet to his head and succumbed to his injuries four days after the attack. Peretz was seriously injured, put into a medically induced coma, ventilated, and underwent spinal surgery. Hala was lightly injured.

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