Israel sentences Hamas commander to life imprisonment 54 times

The Israeli military court at Ofer prison on Sunday imposed 54 life sentences on West Bank Hamas commander in Ibrahim Hamed after convicting him of ordering the killing of 46 Israelis and wounding hundreds in military operations during a Palestinian uprising.

Ibrahim Hamed, 47, was arrested in 2006 on charges of planning, organizing, aiding and executing, including 2001 attack in Zion Square, which left 10 dead; the 2002 attack in Moment Cafe in Jerusalem in March 2002, which claimed 11 lives; the 2003 attacks on Cafe Hillel, which left seven dead and 57 wounded; and the 2003 shooting attack in Zerifin which left nine dead, the Israeli website Ynet reported on Sunday.

His trial lasted for more than six years, during which the Israeli courts failed to condemn him for lack of evidence.

Hamed denied all charges levied against him and refused to recognize the court’s jurisdiction over him.

Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, denounced the sentence handed down to Hamad, the head of Hamas' military wing in the West Bank.

The armed wing said in a terse statement that the Palestinian “prisoners will enjoy freedom in spite of the occupier" and the Israeli sentence against Hamad will remain “ink on paper”.

The Qassam Brigades in Gaza Strip said it does not recognize those verdicts, describing them as an attempt to break the determination of the Palestinian resistance fighters and to dissuade the Palestinian people from supporting resistance.

However, Hamed was one of the Palestinian prisoners considered for release in the deal between Israel and Hamas to free captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, which was completed last October 2011.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army launched air and sea, attacks on various areas in the Gaza Strip at dawn on Monday, without causing injuries.

Israeli F-16 jets fired on a military site of Hamas' military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza. Several minutes later the jets targeted the site again causing serious damage.

Later, Israeli jets fired a missile at an open area in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. No injuries have been reported.

An Israeli military statement said the air force "targeted a terrorist squad in the northern Gaza Strip that was preparing to fire rockets at southern Israel. A hit was confirmed."

Also on Monday morning, Israeli gunboats fired at Palestinian fishing boats off the Khan Younis coast, in southern Gaza Strip, but no casualties were reported

The airstrikes come a week after an Egyptian-brokered truce halted deadly fighting on the border.

Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4249608,00.html

.