Palestinian Jailed for Life for Killing Israeli Soldier

An Israeli court on Wednesday gave a life sentence to the Palestinian killer of an off-duty Israeli soldier and ordered that he serve a minimum of 40 years behind bars.

Israeli public radio described the 40-year-stipulation as "precedent-setting" and said there was also a clause saying that he could not be part of any future Israel-Palestinian prisoner exchange.

In 2011, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by the Islamist movement Hamas five years earlier.

There has lately been talk of a new swap.

A senior Israeli official said Tuesday that Hamas had rejected an offer to trade the bodies of 19 Palestinians killed in the 2014 Gaza war and almost as many prisoners for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.

A transcript of Wednesday's Tel Aviv District Court hearing described the November 2014 stabbing attack on Sergeant Almog Shiloni as "exceptionally grave."

It said that the attacker, Nureddine Abu Hashiyeh, 20, confessed that he sought to snatch Shiloni's rifle and shoot passers-by outside a Tel Aviv rail station as Shiloni returned to his base from leave. 

"I wanted to take his weapon, I wanted to finish everyone on the street," Hashiyeh, from Askar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus, was quoted as saying.

"Someone who wanted to slay as many Jews as possible, according to his own words and actions, just because they are Jews, should be put behind lock and key for many years," Judge Zion Kapah said.

He also ruled that Hashiyeh must pay 258,000 shekels ($67,894/60,705 euros) in compensation to the dead soldier's family.