JERUSALEM (JTA) — Three Israeli soldiers were convicted of beating two Palestinian terror suspects in what may have been revenge for the killing of two comrades from their unit.
The conviction in Jaffa military court on Thursday was in exchange for a deal struck with military prosecutors in which they pleaded guilty to aggravated abuse.
The soldiers, members of the Kfir Brigade’s Netzah Yehuda infantry battalion for religious soldiers, are scheduled to be sentenced on Sunday. Under the agreement they will serve 190 days in prison, plus be put on probation and demoted in rank. They pleaded .
The soldiers arrested the Palestinian men near Ramallah while Israeli troops sought to locate the shooter who fired on a bus stop outside the West Bank settlement of Givat Asaf. Two soldiers from the unit were killed in the attack and another soldier from the unit, a dual Israeli and American citizen, was seriously injured, as was a female civilian.
The soldiers were arrested on suspicion of beating the Palestinian suspects out of revenge for the deaths and injuries.
Two other soldiers are also accused in the incident. One has signed a plea deal and the other has admitted to his role in the attack.
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