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Soldier Who Shot Up Church Sentenced

January 31, 1996
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A Tel Aviv court has sentenced a 22-year-old soldier to 4 1/2 years in prison for spraying a Roman Catholic church with gunfire.

The soldier fired dozens of bullets in May 1995 in St. Anthony’s Church in Jaffa.

No one was hurt, but the shooting set off two days of protests by Arab residents in the Arab and Jewish neighborhood.

The soldier said before his sentencing this week that he did not regret his actions.

Shortly after his arrest, he had said that Jews must “destroy symbols of idol worship.”

Days before the incident in Jaffa, he set a fire at the Gethsemane Church in Jerusalem, causing some damage.

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