Israeli gets life for killing Palestinian

An Israeli man has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a Palestinian teenager in a crime that helped spark the 2014 Gaza war.

Yosef Haim Ben-David (C) is escorted to the Israeli District Court in Jerusalem, Israel, 03 May 2016.

Yosef Haim Ben-David (C) is escorted to the Israeli District Court in Jerusalem, Israel, 03 May 2016. Source: AAP

An Israeli man convicted of murdering a Palestinian teenager in a crime that helped trigger the 2014 Gaza war has been sentenced to life in prison.

The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday sentenced Yosef Haim Ben-David, who organised the killing of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khudair, to life, with an additional 20 years for other counts to be served consecutively.

In Israel a life sentence usually means around 25 years.

Two Jewish youths who helped Ben-David abduct the teen, who was bludgeoned, strangled and burned alive, were sentenced in February, one to life imprisonment and the other to 21 years.

All three defendants had confessed and said the July 2, 2014, murder in Jerusalem was revenge for the killing days earlier of three Israeli youths by the Hamas Islamist group in the occupied West Bank.

Ben-David, 30, had lodged an insanity plea that held up his formal conviction and sentencing. After receiving psychological assessments, the court ruled he "fully understood his actions" and found him guilty last month.

Abu Khudair's killing raised tensions, and a seven-week Israeli offensive against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip began on July 8, 2014, after cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks and an Israeli roundup of suspected militants in the West Bank.


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Source: AAP


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