The surviving children of the Fogel family are suing the killers and the Palestinian Authority for the murder of five members of their family which stabbed to death in a horrific terrorist attack.
The three surviving children of Udi Fogel and Ruthie Fogel, Tamar, Roi and Yishai, filed the lawsuit Monday at the Jerusalem District Court.
The suit also names the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and is seeking $114 million in damages. The Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Center, which is headed by Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is representing the family.
On Friday night at about midnight, Udi and Ruth Fogel, and three of their children, Yoav, 11; Elad, 4; and Hadas, 3 months — were brutally stabbed and shot to death in their beds in their home in Itamar by two terrorist teens, Hakim Awad and Amjad Awad, who were from a nearby Arab village.
WARNING: THE VIDEO BELOW CONTAINS PHOTOS THAT ARE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN OR THE LIGHT HEARTED.
The photos in the video were released by the Fogel family. They have given full permission for their use in order to “report on the horrific reality of murdering children and babies in their sleep, simply because they are Jewish.”
The attack began just after 9 pm on Friday night, when the two cousin terrorists, who were carrying several knives, an umbrella, and wire-cutting shears breached the Itamar settlement fence and broke into a house of a family that was on vacation. They stole an M16 assault rifle, ammunition, a helmet, and a kevlar vest. They waited an hour and entered the Fogels’ house at around 10:30 pm.
According to the indictment, the two entered the children’s room, told eleven-year-old Yoav, who had been awakened by their entry not to be afraid, then took him to a nearby room, slashed his throat, and stabbed him in the chest. Hakim Awad then strangled four-year-old Elad while Amjad Awad stabbing him twice in the chest.
The two next entered the parents’ room, and turned on the light, waking them up. The parents then struggled with the attackers. Ehud Fogel was repeatedly stabbed in the neck, and Ruth Fogel was stabbed in the neck and back and then shot when the suspects saw that she was not dead. The suspects then left the house. The terrorists then returned to the Fogel home where they 3-month old Hadas began crying, Amjad stabbed her, fearing the cries would attract attention.
According to several accounts, the infant was decapitated or nearly decapitated. The attackers did not notice two other children asleep in the house at the time. In their confessions they claimed they would not have hesitated to kill them, had they noticed them. The perpetrators also stole Ehud’s M16 rifle and left Itamar without being detected.
The bodies were discovered by Tamar Fogel, the 12-year-old daughter of the family who arrived home around midnight after a youth outing. After finding that the door was locked, she asked her neighbor, Rabbi Ya’akov Cohen, for help. He noticed tracks and mud near the house, and brought a weapon with him.
The two then woke the sleeping 6-year-old boy by calling through the window, and he opened the door, after which Cohen returned to his home. When the girl discovered the murders, she ran outside screaming, and the Rabbi ran back, firing several shots into the air to alert security personnel. Rabbi Cohen, who later entered the house with the girl, said that her two-year-old brother “was lying next to his bleeding parents, shaking them with his hands and trying to get them to wake up, while crying… The sight in the house was shocking.”
Twelve-year-old Tamar is quoted as having promised her relatives: “I will be strong and succeed in overcoming this. I understand the task that stands before me, and I will be a mother to my siblings
Both assailants — Amjad Awad, 19, who worked as a laborer in Israel, and Hakim Awad 18, a high school student were found after an exhaustive IDF manhunt.
Hakim and Amjad “described what they did with self-control and did not express regret over their actions at any stage of the investigation.” Amjad told reporters in the court “I don’t regret what I did and I would do it again. I’m proud of what I did and I’ll accept any punishment I get, even death, because I did it all for Palestine.”
(Photo: Hagai Aharon)
They were sentenced to five consecutive life sentences. Prior to the sentencing Hakim Awad declared he was not sorry and claimed he carried out the attack “because of the occupation.”
“I am a person like you, I have no mental condition, I never had a serious illness. My only illness is the Israeli occupation.” Hakim Awad said when asked by the judge if he regretted his actions.
“To this day, the terrorists receive handsome salaries from the PA, a fact that entirely defies logic and is contrary to justice,” the Fogel family said in a statement. “In the filing of this claim we seek to send a message in the name of every person who has a heart.”
