An Israeli military court Wednesday sentenced a Palestinian man with U.S. citizenship to two life terms and $1.7 million in penalties for the murder of a Jewish student in the West Bank last year.
"The defendant will serve a total of two life sentences for this case," the three-judge panel of the military court ruled.
Montasser Shalabi, 44, was convicted last August of "intentional manslaughter — equivalent to the offense of murder" after he opened fire at passengers waiting at a bus stop at Tapuah junction in the northern West Bank in May 2021.
The attack killed Yehuda Guetta, 19, a student at a religious seminary in the settlement of Itamar, and wounded two of his friends.
The military court ruled that Shalabi should also pay the equivalent of $484,000 to Guetta's family, $323,000 to a student left paralyzed by his shooting injuries, and about $6,500 to another student lightly injured in the attack.
In July, the army demolished Shalabi's house in Turmus Ayya village, northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank, a move denounced by Washington.
In addition, five other people were indicted in the summer for obstruction of justice by giving Shalabi a place to hide during the initial manhunt when he managed to avoid arrest.