Teen charged with attempted murder in Gaza attack
Israeli prosecutors today filed a charge of attempted murder against Shimshon Siton, an Israeli teenager accused of battering a Palestinian youth with rocks during a settler takeover of an abandoned Palestinian house in the Gaza Strip last month, Israeli Army Radio reported.
The attack on the Palestinian raised an outcry in Israel when TV footage showed Israeli youths throwing large rocks at his head as he lay unconscious and bleeding. The thud of rocks on the victim’s skull could be heard, along with one of the attackers shouting “let him die”.
Police last week arrested Siton, an 18-year-old West Bank resident who is the prime suspect in the case.
At the time of the arrest Siton’s father, Shaul, defended his son, telling Army Radio the case was a conspiracy of the Israeli media.
“When a Jew acts in self-defence he is called a killer or they say he is carrying out a lynching. The ones who are carrying out a lynching here are the media, and no-one else,” he said.
