[JURIST] An Israeli court on Tuesday convicted Yosef Haim for the 2014 murder of a Palestinian teenager that led to a 50-day war in Gaza. Haim entered an insanity plea, but the court rejected his plea stating he was aware of what he was doing at the time of the crime. The Israeli minors accompanying the man were found guilty [JURIST report] by the court in November of kidnapping Mohammed Abu Khdeir in July 2014 and then burning him to death. The murder was supposedly in response [AP report] to three Israeli teens being abducted and murdered by Hamas earlier that summer. Kdheir’s murder led to an increased amount of violence in the region resulting in a 50-day war that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians and 73 Israelis.

The Israel-Palestine conflict [HRW backgrounder] continues to be a significant international issue. Last month the UN rights office expressed concern over the apparent extrajudicial execution [JURIST report] of a Palestinian man in the West Bank. In February UN rights experts urged Israel to address its use of excessive force [JURIST report] against Palestinians and to charge or release all administrative detainees. In August UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both sides of the conflict [JURIST report] to reconcile and move towards peace after an attack occurred in the West Bank village of Duma, where Jewish extremists allegedly set fire to a Palestinian home while the family slept.