A Yokneam man's cruel scheme to profit from Israel's darkest hour has landed him in prison for seven years. Stav Karif, 30, was caught impersonating families of October 7 victims to pocket fake "donations" from unsuspecting supporters.
Karif was also ordered to pay substantial fines.
Court documents reveal Karif used Facebook to steal photos and identities of terror victims' families, then contacted their friends and acquaintances to solicit money. In one particularly egregious case, he posed as Yifat Zeiler, a relative of Shiri Bibas, requesting 10,000 shekels supposedly to help families with frozen bank accounts.
"The defendant exploited the nation's darkest hour for personal gain," the judge stated in the ruling. Karif targeted not only victims' families but also those collecting legitimate donations for Gaza envelope residents, evacuees, and hostages' families.
Among his schemes, Karif would promise to return the "borrowed" money through bank transfers that never materialized. In another instance, he requested 2,000 shekels while impersonating Zeiler, claiming it was to help a family in Eilat.
The harsh sentence reflects both the severity of exploiting national tragedy and the systematic nature of the fraud, which targeted multiple victims during a time of unprecedented national crisis.
Channel 13 contributed to this article.