Israel’s state prosecutor’s office in Yerushalayim has filed a precedent-setting lawsuit against the estate of a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem seven months after the man carried out a car-ramming attack that left four Israelis dead.
Fadi al-Qanbar, 28, drove his truck into a group of Israeli army cadets participating in an educational tour of Yerushalayim last January. Four soldiers, three women and one man, were killed in the attack, and he was shot to death by a vigilant civilian.
Now, the Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office is seeking compensation from Qanbar’s wife and his four young children, heirs to his estate, for burial costs, such as headstones, loss of earnings and pension benefits it laid out for the victims. The total could be as high as $2.3 million.
The lawsuit is likely to be the first in several cases brought by the state against the families of Palestinian attackers.
Over the past two years, a spate of stabbing, shooting and vehicular assaults carried out by individuals in “lone wolf” attacks against Israelis have left nearly 50 Israelis and more than 200 Palestinians dead. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were attempting to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians, soldiers or police officers.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post · Ruth Eglash
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