LOD, Israel: An Israeli court on Monday found a Jewish settler guilty of three murders in an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents -- a verdict that did little to ease the bereaved family’s pain.
Amiram Ben-Uliel, 25, from the West Bank settlement of Shilo, was also convicted of two counts each of attempted murder and arson, along with conspiracy to commit a hate crime in the 2015 attack. The court did not set a date for sentencing on the charges, which carry a maximum term of life in jail, and the defence team announced an appeal.
Hours after the verdict, the Palestinian family devastated by the attack told AFP that justice was incomplete, having long insisted that there were several attackers.
Ahmed Dawabsha was four when his parents and brother were killed by Ben-Uliel, who threw a firebomb through a window of their home while they slept in Duma, a village in the occupied West Bank. He was severely burned. When told by his grandfather that a man had been convicted of the murders, nine-year-old Ahmed cried out, "just one!"
The 2015 killings shone a spotlight on Jewish extremism and sparked accusations Israel had not done enough to prevent such violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labelled such attacks acts of "terrorism", a word more commonly used by Israelis to refer to violence committed by Palestinians. The verdict came a day after Netanyahu said Israel’s new government should push ahead with annexing West Bank Jewish settlements, a move likely to further inflame tensions in the territory.