Arab Israeli handed life sentence for murder of settler

An Arab Israeli has been sentenced to life in prison for the "nationalistically motivated" murder of an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank last year, a court said.

In its Sunday ruling, the Lod district court in central Israel said Abed Hakim Assi, born in 1998, fatally stabbed Itamar Ben Gal, 29, near the settlement of Ariel on February 5, 2018, after identifying the rabbi and father of four as Jewish.

Assi, whose mother is an Arab Israeli and father a Palestinian from the West Bank, "had decided to commit an act of nationalistically motivated terror" following an argument with soldiers at the Ariel checkpoint the previous day, the sentencing said.