A court sentenced two young Israelis to life and 21 years in prison Thursday for the burning alive of a Palestinian teen, part of a cycle of violence that led up to the 2014 Gaza war.
The two Israelis were minors at the time of the chilling attack in which they and a third man snatched Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, from an east Jerusalem street and subsequently killed him.
Israeli settler Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, is said to have led the attack on Abu Khdeir but his lawyers say he suffers from a mental illness and was not responsible for his actions at the time.
The court has found that he committed the crime but is yet to rule if he is mentally competent.
The two others were 16 when they were charged in 2014 but are now adults. They have not been identified because they were minors.
Life sentences were the maximum available to the court.A Palestinian was shot and killed during clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
“Yahya Taha, 21, from the village of Qatanna… died after he was shot and wounded in the head during clashes,” a ministry statement said, referring to an area northwest of Jerusalem
The death brings to 95 the number of Palestinians killed in violence since October 1, including an Arab Israeli.
Around half of them have been the alleged perpetrators of a wave of stabbing, shooting and car ramming attacks. Others have died in clashes with security forces.
The violence has also left 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean dead.
More than 800 Palestinians have been arrested over the past two months, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon told public radio on Thursday.
Attempts to ease the tensions, including a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday, have so far proved unsuccessful.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has called a day of anger for Friday.Thursday for the burning alive of a Palestinian teen, part of a cycle of violence that led up to the 2014 Gaza war.
The two Israelis were minors at the time of the chilling attack in which they and a third man snatched Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, from an east Jerusalem street and subsequently killed him.
Israeli settler Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, is said to have led the attack on Abu Khdeir but his lawyers say he suffers from a mental illness and was not responsible for his actions at the time.
The court has found that he committed the crime but is yet to rule if he is mentally competent.The two others were 16 when they were charged in 2014 but are now adults. They have not been identified because they were minors.Life sentences were the maximum available to the court.A Palestinian was shot and killed during clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
“Yahya Taha, 21, from the village of Qatanna… died after he was shot and wounded in the head during clashes,” a ministry statement said, referring to an area northwest of Jerusalem.
The death brings to 95 the number of Palestinians killed in violence since October 1, including an Arab Israeli.
Around half of them have been the alleged perpetrators of a wave of stabbing, shooting and car ramming attacks. Others have died in clashes with security forces.
The violence has also left 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean dead.
More than 800 Palestinians have been arrested over the past two months, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon told public radio on Thursday.
Attempts to ease the tensions, including a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday, have so far proved unsuccessful.
Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has called a day of anger for Friday.
