Palestinian convicted of trying to bomb Jerusalem light rail

A Palestinian Hebron University student who attempted to bomb the Jerusalem light rail and was found with three pipe bombs, explosives and knives is convicted of attempted murder.

In its ruling, the Jerusalem District Court said that 20-year-old Ali Abu Hassan “planned to carry out a mass a terror attack” which judges likened to a suicide attack.

On July 15, Hassan entered Israel through a valley outside of the eastern Tsur Baher neighborhood, with the intention of carrying out an attack in the capital as a form of “revenge for visits by tourists and Israeli Jews to the Temple Mount,” police said in a statement at the time.

He was armed with three pipe bombs he had linked together into one large explosive and had covered with nails and screws dipped in rat poison. In his bag there were also two knives and a cellphone.