A military court at Beersheba today sentenced six Arab infiltrees, captured after a gun battle with Israeli forces, to 8-12 years in jail. This is the harshest sentence yet meted out by an Israeli court to infiltrees.
The six were convicted of illegal entry into Israel, carrying firearms, attempting to steal livestock from Arab residents of Israel and firing on Israeli forces. The prosecutor demanded the death sentence on the grounds that 12 Israeli soldiers had died in clashes with infiltrees last year. The defense pleaded for mercy, asking the court “not to act like Iraq,” which last week publicly hanged two Iraqi Jews on charges of “terrorism.”
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