Israeli sentenced to life over killing of Palestinian teen

Palestinians inspect the damaged house of Zaid Amer, after it was demolished by the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Tuesday, May 3, 2016. The Israeli army demolished the house of Amer, an arrested member of a Hamas cell who carried out an attack and shot dead a U.S. couple, residents of the West Bank Israeli settlement of Neria, while driving home last October, the army said. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed) Palestinians inspect the damaged house of Zaid Amer, after it was demolished by the Israeli army, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Tuesday, May 3, 2016. The Israeli army demolished the house of Amer, an arrested member of a Hamas cell who carried out an attack and shot dead a U.S. couple, residents of the West Bank Israeli settlement of Neria, while driving home last October, the army said. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

By Associated Press May 3, 2016 1 min read

JERUSALEM (AP) – A Jerusalem court has handed a life sentence to the main attacker in the killing of a Palestinian teenager in 2014 whose death helped spark a chain of events that led to that year’s Gaza war.

The court sentenced Yosef Haim Ben David, 30, on Tuesday to life plus 20 years. The state prosecutor said the damage he caused Israel and the family of the Palestinian teen is “irreparable.”

Ben David and two accomplices abducted 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir in his east Jerusalem neighborhood, drove to a forest and burned him to death. They said the abduction was revenge for the killing of three abducted Israeli teens by Palestinians earlier that summer.

The killing was widely condemned in Israel, but fueled violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police.