Israel hands life sentences to 4 Palestinians over alleged attack

An Israeli court has sentenced four Palestinians to life in prison each over their alleged involvement in the killing of two illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank last October.

“The military court in Samaria handed two life sentences and another 30 years to each of the four members of the Hamas cell …” the Israeli military said in a statement released on Wednesday.

The court postponed sentencing for the other suspects in the case to next month.

Palestinian sources identified the convicts as Amjad al-Eiwi, Yahya al-Hajj Hamad, Karam al-Masri and Samir Qoussa.

On October 1, 2015, an Israeli man and his wife in their 30s, identified as Eitam and Na'ama Henkin and from the illegal settlement of Neria, were killed in a drive-by shooting attack on the road between the illegal Israeli settlements of Itamar and Elon Moreh near Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Their four children aged 9-year-old, 7-year-old, 4-year-old and 4-month-old were in the car but escaped the shooting unharmed.

The incident prompted numerous attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian communities and their properties.

Tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories have escalated over the past months. In August last year, the Israeli regime imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Palestinians are angry at increasing violence by Israeli settlers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and their attacks on Palestinian properties, saying that the Tel Aviv regime seeks to change the status quo of the compound.

At least 214 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces in what is regarded as the third Palestinian Intifada (uprising) since the beginning of last October.

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