(JTA) — Four Palestinians were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a Jewish Israeli husband and wife in the West Bank.
On Wednesday, the four members of a Hamas cell that killed Naama and Rabbi Eitam Henkin in front of their four young children last October were sentenced in military court in the West Bank, according to i24news.
The cell members — Amjad Aliwi, Yahya Haj Hamed, Samir Kusa and Kerem Razek — each were given two life sentences plus an additional 30 years.
The Oct. 1 attack on the Henkins as they were driving with their children came at the beginning of a wave of Palestinian terrorism that has killed 33 Israelis and four non-Israelis. More than 200 Palestinians have also been killed, approximately two-thirds while attacking Israelis and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The attackers originally had intended to kidnap the Henkins, but instead shot them at close range, according to reports. The children, who were in the back seat of the car, were uninjured. The family lived in Neria, a West Bank settlement.
Three of the four Palestinians sentenced had also been involved in two previous shooting attacks on Israelis, the army said.
Another Palestinian involved in the attack, along with two others involved in the planning, are awaiting sentencing.
Eitam Henkin was an American citizen and the son of Rabbi Yehuda and Chana Henkin, the founders in 1990 of Nishmat, an institute for advanced Torah study for women in Jerusalem. The parents moved to Israel from the United States in the 1970s.
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