Three PA Arab men who murdered a Jewish cab driver in 2009 have been sentenced to life in prison. Two of them admitted to murdering Gregory Rabinowitz, 56, and said they killed him in revenge for the death of a relative, a terrorist belonging to Islamic Jihad who died fighting Israel.

The killers – Mohammed Khaledi, Mahmoud Ouda, and Ahmed Abu-Hanini – did not murder their victim right away. Instead, they first attacked him, causing him to lose consciousness, then put him in the trunk of his own cab, which they stole.

When Rabinowitz regained consciousness, they attacked him cruelly again, choking him to death. They left his body in an open field near Gan Yavne, partially covered by branches.

The three were all residents of the PA village of Arana near Jenin who had entered pre-1967 Israel illegally. They gained access to Rabinowitz, whom they selected at random, by pretending that they needed a ride from Ashdod to Gan Yavne.

Police investigators suspected from the beginning that the killers were PA Arab terrorists, due to the brutal assault they had inflicted on Rabinowitz before murdering him.

Rabinowitz was survived by a wife and two children. His first two grandchildren were born one month after his murder.