Esther Horgan
Esther HorganCourtesy of the family

Muhammad Maruh Kabha, the terrorist who killed Esther Horgan last year, was convicted Wednesday by the Salam Camp military court.

Esther Horgan, 52, was murdered on December 20, 2020, while jogging near her home in Tal Menashe in Samaria. She is survived by her husband and six children - two daughters and four sons. The youngest of them, 13 years old, celebrated a bar mitzvah a few months ago before Esther was killed.

Kabha was arrested four days after he killed Horgan and was indicted on February 4, 2021. He has confessed to the murder.

According to the indictment, Kabha decided to carry out a terror attack to avenge the death - from cancer - of his friend in an Israeli prison.

Responding to the conviction, the Horgan family said, "We are happy that the terrorist was convicted by his own confession today in court. This step greatly advances us towards the end of the legal process, which has already gone on for too long."

"The terrorist must be punished to the fullest extent of the law, and to rot behind bars until the end of his life."

They added, "We are sorry that those who sent the murderer are not sitting next to him on the bench for the convicted. We are referring to the Palestinian Authority and the person who heads it, who encourage terror with their blood libels and education to hatred and murder, and who pay enormous sums to terrorists and their families after the act."

"Placing the Palestinian Authority leaders personally on trial, for sending and paying assassins to murder Jews may possibly serve as a more significant deterrent, and prevent, or at least reduce, the chances of the next murder."

Attorney Morris Hirsch, who is representing the Horgan family, said, "The lowlife terrorist who murdered Esther did not act in a vacuum. The incitement expressed by the Palestinian Authority and the compensation which it pays to every terrorist have significantly and existentially contributed to the act of this horrific murder."

"We call on the Prime Minister and Defense Minister to change their policies and to act with force against Palestinian Authority officials who incite the murder of Jews and to eliminate the Palestinian Authority's policy of paying compensation to terrorists. The legal infrastructure already exists. All that's left now is the desire to act."