JERUSALEM (JTA) — Three brothers from a West Bank settlement who carried out attacks on Palestinians were convicted of being members of a terrorist cell.
It is the first time that settlers have been identified as belonging to a terror cell.
The brothers, from the Nachliel settlement, have not been named since they were all minors or an Israeli soldier at the time of the incident.
On Thursday, two brothers were sentenced to five years each in prison; the other brother was sentenced to 32 months. The brothers also were ordered to pay compensation to their victims.
The sentences were part of a plea bargain in which the brothers pleaded guilty to carrying out several attacks between 2009 and 2015 as part of a six-member cell. The attacks include arson of Palestinian homes and cars, and spray-painting graffiti.
Three members of the cell remain on trial.
Sonia Harizi Moses of the right-wing Honenu legal aid organization called the verdict “strict” and said they would appeal it to the Supreme Court. She told Ynet that the conviction “did not take into account that the defendants, who are all related, were minors at the time of most of the offenses and underwent a difficult time in their lives that I cannot divulge.”
