The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had sentenced a member of the Islamic Jihad militant group to 22 months in prison after his arrest helped spark three days of heavy fighting in Gaza last year.
Bassam al-Saadi’s sentence was handed down under a plea deal that included suspending a further sentence and ordering al-Saadi to pay compensation, the army said in a statement. Al-Saadi had been convicted of illegal association, incitement and identity theft.
The statement said al-Saadi, 62 at the time of his arrest, worked with other suspects to advance the group’s activities “within its student wing” by receiving funding from an Islamic Jihad operative in Gaza. He was arrested in August during a night raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
Palestinians often take plea deals in Israel, where, critics say, courts often rely on secret evidence presented by security officials.
Islamic Jihad had demanded al-Saadi’s release. The group is sponsored by Iran and has carried out dozens of deadly attacks against Israeli civilians over the years. It operates in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
US SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO ENTER ARKANSAS LEGAL FIGHT OVER LAW REQUIRING CONTRACTORS NOT TO BOYCOT ISRAEL
Bassam al-Saadi, one of the leaders of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine, poses for a photo at the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank, on September 10, 2020. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Israel said the group had planned a revenge attack from Gaza. In response to what it called an imminent threat, Israel launched a wave of air strikes in Gaza that killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander. The militants began firing hundreds of rockets at Israel a few hours later.
The blaze claimed the lives of 49 Palestinians, including the militant group’s two top commanders and 10 other fighters, before the ceasefire went into effect. Gaza militants fired some 1,100 rockets, but no one on the Israeli side was killed or seriously injured.
Al-Saadi spent a total of 15 years at various times in Israeli prisons for being a member of Islamic Jihad. Israel killed two of his sons, also Islamic Jihad militants, in separate incidents in 2002, and destroyed his home during a fierce battle in Jenin that year.
Israeli forces have carried out regular operations in Jenin in recent months which the military says are aimed at dismantling militant networks in the wake of several deadly attacks inside Israel. The raids often trigger firefights with Palestinian militants.
