Members of the Solomon family are expected to speak at a court hearing Wednesday during the sentencing phase of the terrorist who murdered their father, Yossi Salomon, his son Elad and his daughter Chaya, and seriously injured their mother Tova, Honenu reported. The court will convene at Camp Ofer in Judea.
Last July, the Solomons were having a special Shabbat dinner in their Neveh Tzuf, Samaria home, to celebrate a new baby that had just been born in their family, when Omar el-Abed, 19, from neighboring Khobar entered the house wielding a knife. One of the women ushered the children into a separate room and called police. The attacker meanwhile stabbed four family members. An off-duty soldier, the Solomons’ neighbor, who heard the shouting, ran up to the house and shot the murderer, but did not kill him.
The family’s demand for the death penalty received the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said, during a shiva visit to the Solomons’ home that his position as prime minister was that the terrorist should be executed.
“It is anchored in law,” Netanyahu explained. “It requires a unanimous decision by the judges, but if you also want to know the government’s position, I, as prime minister, in the case of such a lowly murderer, is that he should be executed.”
“He simply should not smile any longer,” Prime Minister Netanyahu told the mourners.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and other ministers have made similar statements, calling for Omar el-Abed’s death.