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JERUSALEM, July 11 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli court on Monday handed a Palestinian man three life sentences over a bus attack in Jerusalem last October that killed three Israelis.
The Jerusalem District Court gave Bilal Abu-Ghanem, 21, from the east Jerusalem Palestinian village of Jabel Mukaber, three life terms plus 60 years in prison.
He was convicted last month of three counts of murder, seven counts of attempted murder, and of aiding the enemy during war.
The Palestinian will also have to pay 250,000 shekels (83,000 U.S. dollars) to the families of the murdered victims and 150,000 shekels (nearly 40,000 dollars) to the families of the wounded.
Abu-Ghanem was one of two Palestinians who carried out a combined shooting and stabbing attack on a Jerusalem bus in October 2015. Other than the three Israelis killed, seven others were wounded. The other attacker was killed by Israeli police forces.
Israelis and the Palestinians have been mired in a wave of violence since October that has claimed the lives of 34 Israelis and 215 Palestinians.
Israel accuses the Palestinian Authority of inciting violence, whereas the Palestinians say it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, where they wish to establish an independent state.
