Palestinian gets two life terms for aiding bomber

A military court has sentenced a Palestinian to two life terms plus 20 years for driving a suicide bomber to a Jewish settlement where he carried out an attack that killed two Israelis, the army said Thursday. Nasser Daoud, 24, from a village near the West Bank city of Ramallah, was convicted of murder and attempted murder for transporting the bomber and giving him the belt of explosives that he used in the attack in August 2003, according to the sentencing document provided by the army. Two Israelis were killed and one seriously wounded in the attack in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. "The defendant fully participated and acted with determination, fully committed to his murderous mission and even took his own initiative in several instances, a murderous initiative," the three-judge panel wrote in its decision. Daoud, a member of Hamas, watched the bombing from 200 meters (yards) away to ensure its success, according to the indictment. He provided the bomber with a pistol in case the bomb's detonator did not work, the document said.