Israeli Given 3 Life Terms for Fatal West Bank Attack

The District Court in Lod, a town in central Israel, has sentenced Amiram Ben-Uliel to three life terms in prison for the July 2015 firebombing deaths of three members of Dawabshe family, residents of the central West Bank village of Duma. Eighteen-month-old Ali Dawabshe died on the spot. His parents, Sa’ad and Riham, died later from burns. A second child, five-year-old Ahmad, survived despite being severely burned. Ben-Uliel grew up in a West Bank settlement and as a teen is said to have become highly radicalized, keeping company with so-called hilltop youth, Jewish youngsters who regularly confront Israeli authorities and are believed to carry out arson attacks against Arabs. He was given an additional 20-year sentence for two counts of attempted murder in the firebombing of a second home that happened to be unoccupied at the time. At the end of his trial in May, he was acquitted of membership in a terrorist group.