Israel gives Palestinian two life sentences plus 50 years for 2018 deaths of soldiers

A Palestinian man was sentenced to two life terms plus fifty years by an Israeli court on Monday after being found guilty of deliberately running over four Israeli soldiers in 2018 and killing two of them.

The sentence was given by an Israeli military court in the occupied West Bank to Palestinian prisoner Alaa Kabha.

جيش الاحتلال: الحكم بالسجن المؤبد و50 سنة على الأسير علاء كبها منفذ عملية الدهس شمال الضفة الغربية عام 2018 والتي أسفرت عن مقتل الجندييْن "زيف داوس" والرقيب "نيتانئيل كاهالاني" pic.twitter.com/NAqLr1HEVD

— العاصفة (@abwdy1242938) June 19, 2023

The court ordered Kabha to pay 3 million shekels (over $800,000) to the other two soldiers who were injured. But the defendant insists what happened near the Mevo Dotan settlement in the northern West Bank was an accident and not intentional.

He was convicted in 2022 and his appeals were rejected.

According to the indictment, Kabha allegedly "passed the soldiers with a vehicle and decided to run them over until they died. Then he came back and drove towards them at a speed of about 70 km/h, until he ran them over, killing two soldiers and injuring two others."

In his defence, Kabha had previously said that he did not approach the soldiers' weapons after the incident, but rather asked Palestinians who were present at the scene to call for help for the injured, adding that he was assaulted by Israeli interrogators and Shin Bet – Israel’s internal security service - while in detention.