Second Palestinian teenager found guilty in murder of settler family

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REPORTING FROM SALEM, ISRAEL — An Israeli military court on Monday convicted a second Palestinian teenager of murder in the March deaths of five Jewish settlers, including three children, as they slept in their home.

Conservative Israeli lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari repeatedly interrupted Monday’s hearing, cursing the defendant, Amjad Awad, 19, and urging the judges to impose the death penalty.

Prosecutors are recommending five life sentences. In September, Awad’s cousin and co-defendant, Hakim Awad, 18, was given five terms in the slayings.

The pair confessed to sneaking into the Itamar settlement from their nearby Arab village and killing five members of the Fogel family with knives and a gun. Among those stabbed to death were the three children, including an infant.

Neither defendant has expressed regret. At his sentencing, Hakim Awad said the pair committed the attack to strike against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

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— Edmund Sanders