Israeli court convicts settler of torching to death Palestinian family

An Israeli court convicted on Monday an Israeli settler of three counts of murder over an arson attack that killed a Palestinian baby and his parents in a West Bank village in 2015.

The Central District Court ruled that Amiram Ben-Uliel, an Israeli settler, hurled a firebomb that torched the house of Dawabshe family in the village of Duma.

The fire killed 18-month Ali Dawabshe, his mother, Riham, 27, and his father, Sa'ad, 32. His brother, four-year-old Ahmad survived but sustained serious injuries.

The judges said the attack was "an act of terror" driven by racist motives.

Israel's Shin Bet security service said that Ben-Uliel, 25, had admitted of planning and carrying out the attack to "avenge" a Palestinian attack a month earlier in which an Israeli was killed. He had two other friends who were complicit in the murder, according to the Shin Bet.

Ben-Uliel's lawyer, Itzhak Bam, denied the allegations, saying Ben-Uliel's confession was taken under "tortures."

"I don't want even one more child to be in Ahmad's position, I don't want any other family to suffer such a trauma," said Hussein Dawabshe, Ali and Ahmad's grandfather.

Over the past years, ultra-nationalist Israelis have increasingly been carrying out attacks against Palestinians, including harassments of Palestinian farmers, and vandalizing Palestinian property, cemeteries, mosques, and churches.

Most of these non-lethal attacks go unpunished, according to human rights groups that monitor this violence.