Four Palestinian terrorists were sentenced today to life imprisonment by an Israeli military court after they were convicted in the killing of six Jewish settlers in Hebron in the West Bank in May 1980. The settlers were murdered from ambush as they returned from Sabbath eve prayers at the Cave of the Patriarchs.
The precedent that no Palestinian terrorist has been executed by Israel was maintained when one of the three judges rejected the death penalty which may be imposed only by unanimity. Relatives of the slain settlers had demanded the death penalty and one of them, Azriel Barrak, said the sentence was “an invitation” to “other murderers to commit similar atrocities.”
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