Jewish 'extremist' settler jailed

Nablus inhabitants say their lives are blighted by settler attacks

An Israeli court has sentenced a Jewish settler to eight years imprisonment for membership of an extremist group.

Shahar Dvir-Zeliger was handed a lesser sentence after co-operating with investigators and leading them to where a weapons cache used by the group.

The cache in a West Bank cave contained guns, anti-tank rockets and ammunition stolen from the Israeli army.

Prosecutors said the Dvir-Zeliger was member of the Bat Ayin cell, which has killed eight Palestinians.

Three members of the group were convicted in 2003 for a bombing at a Palestinian school in east Jerusalem in 2002 that left a teacher and four children injured.

Two were sentenced to 15 years' jail and the third received a 12-year term.

In handing down the sentence to Dvir-Zeliger - who lives in an illegal settlement outpost near Nablus - the judge said: "The phenomenon of Jewish citizens of Israel belonging to a terrorist organisation aiming to harm Arab residents needs to be eradicated by severe punishment."

The perpetrators of a series of shooting attacks against Palestinian motorists between 2001 and 2002 that killed eight people, including a baby, have yet to be identified.