Israel Indicts Hamas Terrorist for Passover Murder

Israel indicted a Hamas terrorist Monday for murdering an Israeli police officer. The terrorist, Ziad Awad, opened fire on Israeli civilian vehicles last April on the eve of Passover. The brutal attack killed Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi, critically wounded his wife, and injured a nine year-old child in a second vehicle.

Colonel Yariv Ben Ezra, a senior IDF officer involved in Awad’s arrest, stressed that Israeli forces “can say for certain that he carried out the murder.”

In May, IDF soldiers arrested Awad during a joint operation involving Israeli security officials. Forces also arrested Az Al-Adin Hasan Awad, the terrorist’s 18-year-old son, who admitted that his father​ had shared his ​intentions to execute a terror attack.

Following the shooting, Ziad Awad shared his religious motive with his son and said that “according to the Islamic religion, those who kill Jews ​go to heaven”.

The attacker was one of 1,027 Hamas terrorists released during the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. In connection with the June 12 kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, the IDF has arrested 50 Hamas terrorists released during the deal.