Yosef Haim Ben-David, the Israeli man convicted of leading the 2014 kidnapping and murder of Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, has died at the age of 42 while serving a life sentence.
Ben-David was transferred from Hasharon Prison to a hospital on Thursday, where he was pronounced dead. The Israel Prison Service confirmed that a 42-year-old prisoner had died but did not disclose his medical condition or cause of death. An inquiry into the death has been opened.
Ben-David was convicted in 2016 over the killing of 16-year-old Abu Khdeir, who was abducted from the Shuafat area of East Jerusalem in July 2014. He was taken to the Jerusalem Forest, where he was beaten and burned alive, according to court findings and forensic evidence.
Prosecutors said the killing was carried out as revenge for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers — Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah — whose deaths had intensified tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
Ben-David was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years. In 2018, Israel’s Supreme Court upheld his conviction and sentence after rejecting appeals by him and his two accomplices.
The case became one of the most prominent incidents of violence surrounding the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, with Abu Khdeir’s killing triggering protests and unrest in East Jerusalem. His death in prison brings renewed attention to a case that has remained a significant part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s history.
