Palestinians Convict 3 of Killing Israeli Woman, Son in West Bank

Palestinians have arrested and convicted three men in a highway ambush that killed an Israeli woman and her son in the West Bank last week, a Palestinian official said Wednesday.

Abdel Nasser Kaasi and Ibrahim Massad received life sentences in the speedy trial, and driver Ibrahim Alqam got a 15-year sentence, according to Jibril Rajoub, the top Palestinian security official in the West Bank.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that anyone arrested in the Dec. 11 attack be handed over to Israel.

Reacting to the trial, Netanyahu spokesman David Bar-Illan said Wednesday: “They were sentenced quickly with the obvious purpose of avoiding handing them over. We can only hope that they will indeed be kept in prison and not freed, as so many terrorists convicted by the Palestinian courts have been in the past.”

Under Palestinian law, a life sentence means no parole for at least 25 years.

Rajoub gave no further details of the trial except to say that it “was done according to regulations.”

Etta Tzur, 42, and her 12-year-old son were killed when gunmen opened fire on their car as they drove to their home in the Jewish settlement of Beit El. Three other family members were wounded.