Jewish settler jailed for life for murdering Palestinians

An Israeli court sentenced a Jewish settler to four life sentences for murdering four Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank last year during Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the BBC reported.

Asher Weissgan snatched a rifle from a settlement security guard and shot dead four Palestinian employees at the Shilo industrial zone on August 17, 2005.

Prosecutors said the attack was an attempt by extreme-right Jewish groups and individuals to disrupt Israel’s pullout from all settlements in Gaza and four isolated enclaves in the West Bank.

After his arrest, Weisgan said he didn’t regret the shooting of the Palestinians, and expressed the hope that someone would assassinate then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who condemned the attack at the time as a “Jewish act of terror”.

A judicial source said Weissgan’s four sentences came with an additional 12 years in prison.

He was also ordered to pay nearly $250,000 in compensation, to be divided between the four Palestinian families who lost relatives and another man who was wounded in the attack.

"It was a savage murder of innocents, who fell victim to the twisted logic of the accused," the judges said, according to the BBC.

Weissgan’s attack came two weeks after another Jewish extremist killed four Israeli Arabs in the town of Shfaram in northern Israel.

Convictions for settlers’ crimes in the West Bank are rare, according to a recent report by Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, which concluded that 90% of Israeli investigations into settler violence against Palestinians end in failure because files were lost or closed due to "lack of evidence."

Olmert-Abbas summit “within days”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a summit “within days”, but warned against expecting quick results, Reuters news agency reported.

"I hope to meet him (Abbas) within the coming days," Olmert said on Thursday in an interview with Israel Radio.

“But the distance is long... we don't have to be hasty. How it will end, we shall see," he added.

Olmert’s spokesman, Assaf Shariv, said no preparations had been made for any meeting, and top Abbas aide, Saeb Erekat, said that the Palestinian president was ready to meet the Israeli prime minister, adding that he too was unaware of any preparations for the talks.

Such a meeting would be the first formal summit between the two leaders since Olmert took over as prime minister in January.

Peace talks between the two sides collapsed in 2000 before the start of the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada, and Israel froze contacts with the Palestinian government after Hamas defeated Abbas’ Fatah party in the January legislative elections.

Olmert and Abbas last met at an informal meeting in June. Days after the meeting, Israel launched a massive offensive in the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas, whose armed wing is part of three resistance groups that captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid.

More than 220 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Israeli assault so far.