Court Increases Sentence to 7.5 Years for October 7 Be'eri Car Thief
The Be'er Sheva District Court extended the prison sentence of Guy Hadad to seven and a half years for stealing vehicles from Kibbutz Be'eri after the October 7 massacre.
The Be'er Sheva District Court increased the sentence of Guy Hadad, 44, who stole vehicles from Kibbutz Be'eri following the October 7 massacre, sentencing him to seven and a half years in prison. Hadad stole the cars, including those belonging to massacre survivors and hostage survivor Eli Sharabi, to sell them in the Palestinian Authority. Sharabi discovered his car was stolen only upon returning from captivity. The Southern District Prosecutor's Office had appealed the initial lenient sentence of five and a half years handed down by the Magistrates' Court, after he was convicted of conspiracy to commit a crime and five counts of joint car theft.
Exploitation of National Trauma
"The sentence does not reflect the public's revulsion at his actions and the moral stain inherent in them," the prosecution argued in the appeal. The district judges, headed by Judge Gilat Shalev, along with Itai Bresler-Gonen and Fanny Gilat Cohen, decided to increase his sentence by two years.
Following the massacre and the evacuation of border communities, a volunteer center was established to assist soldiers and civilians with logistical tasks. Hadad, the owner of a towing company from Rishon LeZion, together with a tow truck driver named Israel Amram, were among the volunteers. Hadad instructed Amram to go to Be'eri, locate vehicles to steal, load them onto the tow truck, and transfer them to his company's parking lot in order to sell them in the Palestinian Authority.
Cynical Business Opportunity
The Magistrates' Court previously stated that while a spirit of voluntarism, unity, and solidarity gripped the country's citizens, the defendant chose a different path, identifying national chaos as a cynical business opportunity. He reached into the property of those who had lost their world and were not there to guard it. The prosecution, represented by Adv. Tehila Galante and Moran Abergil, argued that it would have been appropriate to sentence him to up to 12 years in prison, defining Hadad as an "enemy from within."
The District Court judges who harshened the sentence ruled: "Days after the events of October 7, when the entire country was stricken with shock, mourning, and trauma, Hadad decided to hatch an inconceivable plan of profiteering at the expense of envelope residents, some of whom were brutally murdered, some kidnapped, and others left emotionally scarred and forced to evacuate their homes."
