The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday sentenced a Palestinian minor to 18 years in prison for the killing of a Border Police officer in 2023.

The presiding judges found Muhammad Zalbani, who fatally stabbed Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed during a checkpoint inspection two years ago, guilty of aggravated murder. The assailant was 13 years old at the time.

According to the verdict, Zalbani found a knife in his aunt’s house in the Shuafat camp and took it with him on a bus that passes through the nearby checkpoint.

The teen sat at the back of the bus, with the knife near his leg to be able to draw it quickly, and waited for security forces to board for a routine inspection of the passengers.

As Sawaed approached the back of the bus, Zalbani got up from his seat and began to stab Sawaed repeatedly in the neck and head, per the verdict.

A civilian security officer who boarded the bus with Sawaed opened fire at Zalbani, but accidentally hit the wounded border cop in the thigh.

Sawaed died on the way to the hospital due to excessive bleeding.

“There is no doubt that the defendant’s actions brought about, in an indirect manner, the shooting of the deceased by the security guard,” the court said in its ruling.

Sawaed, 22, grew up in the northern Bedouin village of Hussniyya and was one of seven siblings. He was serving as a noncommissioned officer in the Border Police after completing his mandatory service.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.