Israel court reduces Palestinian teenage attacker's sentence

 Israel's supreme court on Thursday reduced the sentence of a Palestinian teenager who became a symbol of a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2015.

Ahmed Manasra, now 15, was sentenced to 12 years last November after being found guilty of the attempted murder of two Israelis, a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy, in a stabbing attack with his cousin in a Jewish settlement in annexed east Jerusalem.

The sentence was reduced to nine and a half years by the court, his lawyer Leah Tsemel told AFP.

A 180,000 shekel ($47,000, 43,000 euros) fine will remain in place, she said.

"It is not the best we wanted, but that's what we got," she said.

At the beginning of a wave of violence that began in October 2015, then 13-year-old Ahmed Manasra and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan entered the Jewish settlement neighbourhood of Pisgat Zeev and stabbed the two Israelis.

Hassan was shot dead by security forces.

The stabbings led to a propaganda war between Palestinians and Israelis, sparked by surveillance footage later released of the incident.

Israelis saw the youthful age of the attackers as proof that they had been indoctrinated by propaganda.

Footage of a bloodied Ahmed, who was hit by a car as they fled, on the ground as Israeli Jews shouted abuse at him after the attack sparked anger among Palestinians.

Since October 2015, 293 Palestinians or Arab Israelis and 47 Jewish Israelis have been killed, according to an AFP toll.

Israel says the majority of Palestinians were attackers, though others were killed at protests or during raids.

Source: AFP