The Haifa District Court on Monday handed down heavy sentences for four men from the village of Bir al-Maksour in the Galilee, convicted of raping and kidnapping four young hitchhikers from the north.

The four were also convicted - in the framework of a plea bargain - of conspiring to commit crimes. The acts attributed to them took place between December 2005 and November 2006.

The harshest sentence handed down is for 20 years in prison and a three- year suspended sentence for Salem Hujeirat. His cousin, Ala Hujeirat, was given 15 years in jails and a three-year suspended sentence. Ruhi Hujeirat and Mohammed Radir received nine years in jail and a three-year suspended sentence each.

The court also ordered the men to pay a total of NIS 190,000 to the complainants.

The indictment against the men charges them with the rape of a female soldier kidnapped at knifepoint and three other kidnappings - of a 16-year-old girl in Kiryat Bialik, a 26-year-old woman from a bus station near Bir al-Maksour and a 13-year-old girl...

A gang of serial rapists has been prowling the North, raping Jewish women as revenge for IDF actions in the West Bank, police revealed Tuesday after arresting six suspects.

"We are raping Jews because of what the IDF is doing to the Palestinians in the territories," one of the six suspects told investigators from the Northern District Central Investigative Unit (CIU) during questioning. During their questioning and their brief appearance at the Nazareth Magistrate's Court Tuesday, none of the four main suspects indicated that they felt remorse for their actions.

Police said they were aware of four attacks carried out by the gang, but they believed there were probably other incidents that had gone unreported by the victims...