Tel Aviv, a Palestinian assailant sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two Israelis

Rayed Khalil will have to serve life imprisonment for each of the two victims. The judges also imposes an additional penalty of 20 years for attempted murder. The court recognizes "aggravating circumstances" of "exceptionally serious" nature, that exclude reduction of sentences in the future.

 

Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - An Israeli court has sentenced a young Palestinian to life imprisonment for killing two Israelis and wounding a third person in a knife attack in 2015. The assault, in the context of the Third intifada (or "intifada of the knives"), took place in Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial and financial capital.

According to reports from the Israeli Ministry of Justice, the Tel Aviv District Court ruled that 37 year-old Palestinian, Rayed Khalil (pictured), will have to serve life imprisonment for each of the two murders. He also received an additional sentence of 20 years in prison for attempted murder.

A ministerial source also clarified that life imprisonment "is valid for 25 years," and that is not expected to parole for this case.

Khalil, originally from Hebron in the southern West Bank, will not be eligible for a reduced sentence.  Judges have ruled that the attack took place in  "aggravating circumstances" of was of "exceptional gravity." And, in the future, the assailant may not even be included in any early release program in the context of possible (and future) agreements between Israel and Palestine regarding pardons.

Also yesterday, separately, the court of Lod, not far from Tel Aviv, sentenced another Palestinian to 16 years and six months in prison: Tamer Weridat, 30 years old, who stabbed - wounding - an Israeli citizen in one of the first episodes of the "intifada of knives" in October 2015.

Recently the sentence to 12 years in prison for a 14 year old Palestinian, found guilty of attempted murder, caused deep indignation.

Starting in October 2015, a series of provocations by ultra-Orthodox Jews who went to pray on the Temple Mount after Yom Kippur and Sukkot sparked violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

A year into the knife intifada has resulted in the death of 238 Palestinians, 36 Israelis, two Americans, a Jordanian, a Sudanese, and an Eritrean.

• Israel Palestine attacks peace conflict violence intifada
• knives Jews Muslims Jerusalem