Extremist convicted for deadly arson

An Israeli district court on Monday convicted a Jewish extremist of murder in a 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents.

The court ruled that the Jewish settler Amiram Ben-Uliel hurled firebombs into a West Bank home in July 2015, killing 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh. His mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali's 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived.

The case sent shock waves through Israel and helped fuel months of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

"This trial won't bring my family back," Hussein Dawabshe, the toddler's grandfather, said outside the courtroom in central Israel. "But I don't want another family to go through the trauma that I have."

Ben-Uliel belonged to a movement known as the "hilltop youth", a leaderless group of young people who set up unauthorized outposts, usually clusters of trailers, on West Bank hilltops－land the Palestinians claim for their future state.

Agencies Via Xinhua