Two Israeli teens convicted of 2014 murder of Palestinian youth

Mohammad Abu Khdair, 16, was killed in apparent revenge for the murders of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.

Mohammad Abu Khdair, 16, was killed in apparent revenge for the murders of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.
Mohammad Abu Khdair, 16, was killed in apparent revenge for the murders of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.

Two 17-year-old Israelis have been convicted of the murder of Palestinian youth Mohammad Abu Khdair, abducted and burned to death in Jerusalem in 2014.

A verdict on a third suspect, a 31-year-old Israeli man, was postponed for a mental health review.

Mohammad Abu Khdair, 16, was killed in apparent revenge for the murders of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.

Mohammad Abu Khdair's body was found in a forest in West Jerusalem on 2 July 2014, two days after the bodies of three Israeli teenagers abducted and murdered by Hamas militants that June were found in the West Bank.

Israeli prosecutors said the two unnamed minors and 31-year-old Yosef Haim Ben David admitted during questioning to beating Abu Khdair unconscious and then burning him to death using petrol poured on the teenager while he was still alive.

The killings set off an escalating cycle of violence, leading to a war between Israel and militants in Gaza.

On Monday, the panel of three judges at the Jerusalem District Court found the minors guilty of the murder.

They also said there was enough evidence to convict Ben David, but that the verdict would be postponed until a psychiatric evaluation had been carried out.