An Israeli district court has sentenced a Palestinian teenager to 18 years in prison on the charge of an alleged stabbing attack at a light rail station in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds in October 2015.
On Monday noon, the Jerusalem al-Quds District Court passed the ruling against 19-year-old Subhi Abu Khalifa, a resident of the Palestinian Arab neighborhood of Shuafat in East Jerusalem al-Quds, after he was convicted of purportedly injuring two Israeli men in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem al-Quds on October 8, 2015.
Abu Khalifa was also ordered to pay 180,000 Israeli shekels (over $46,500) in compensation to the pair.
One of the Israeli men, identified as a 25-year-old Yeshiva student, was said to be seriously injured and had to be taken to hospital. The second one was apparently a light rail security guard, who was slightly hurt following an altercation with the Palestinian teenager.
Abu Khalifa managed to flee the scene, but was pursued and arrested by Israeli police motorcyclists.
The development came only two days after Israeli authorities transferred 14-year-old Ahmad Saleh Manasra to the high-security Megiddo prison.
On November 7, the Jerusalem al-Quds District Court sentenced Manasra to 12 years in jail on the charge of attempting to murder a 20-year-old man and a 12-year-old boy in the illegal Israeli settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev in East Jerusalem al-Quds on October 12, 2015.
The Palestinian teenage boy was also ordered to pay 80,000 shekels ($21,000) in compensation to the Israeli man and 100,000 shekels ($26,260) to the Israeli boy.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) says Israel is holding nearly 350 minors, including twelve girls, in prisons and detention facilities across the occupied territories.
The Palestinian non-governmental group announced on Saturday that it had documented more than 2,000 cases of child arrests since late 2015, adding that most of the detentions had taken place in Jerusalem al-Quds.