JERUSALEM, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Israel court on Monday convicted a Jewish extremist for an arson attack on an iconic church in northern Israel in 2015.
The Nazareth District Court found Yinon Reuveni, 22, guilty of all charges in the incident, in which the Church of Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish near the Sea of Galilee was burnt and vandalized.
Reuveni was convicted of arson under aggravated circumstances, vandalism driven by hostility towards a public, and conspiracy to commit a crime.
However, Yehuda Asraf, 21, who was suspected of abetting Reuveni, was acquitted of all charges.
The pair was arrested about a month after the June 2015 arson. According to the Israeli Shin Bet security service, they are part of the so-called "hilltop youth," groups of extremists, nationalist youths from controversial Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
The Shin Bet said that Reuveni was arrested and investigated in the past over suspicion of committing attacks against Arabs and setting fire to Palestinians' property.
He was banned from the West Bank for six months by an administrative restraining order, but no charges were pressed against him.
The prosecutor in the case, Avi Pasternak of the Northern District State Attorney's Office, said that the conviction was the result of a great effort by the police, the Shin Bet security service, and the State Attorney's Office, to bring the justice the perpetrators of the arson.
"The court made a significant statement in its decision against Jewish terrorism," said Pasternak.
The Church of Multiplication marks the site where Christians believe that Jesus performed the miracle of feeding throngs with five loaves of bread and two fish.
Two people were slightly injured due to the fire, which caused extensive damage to the building.
A Hebrew graffiti was spray-painted on a wall of the church. The graffiti was taken from a passage in the Jewish prayer book, calling to destroy worshippers of idols.
The arson of the church came amidst an escalating number of attacks on Christian sites in Israel. It triggered widespread condemnations as well as concerns for the safety of Christians worldwide.
According to Israeli rights watchdog Rabbis for Human Rights, there have been hundreds of hate crime attacks against holy sites since 2009, including cemeteries, mosques, churches and monasteries, in Israel, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
