A Be'er Sheva court has sentenced Mamdouh Altanaah to 25 years in jail for firing Grad Katyusha rockets towards Israel and for participating in a terrorist attack.

Altanaa, a Gaza resident, agreed to a plea bargain, and the three District Court judges therefore sentenced him to the relatively short sentence of 25 years. He admitted to having been involved in two incidents of firing Katyusha rockets at Sderot and environs - one from Beit Lahiya, and another from Erez.

Altanaah was also convicted of preparing for a terrorist attack in 2007, in which two IDF soldiers were wounded after he and another terrorist entered an army camp near Gaza.

"There is no dispute that the defendant's actions were most severe," the court ruled, "and that the crimes he perpetrated placed the citizens and soldiers of the State in concrete danger. The State of Israel's struggle against murderous terrorism requires that he be punished with all severity."

Despite this, they honored the plea bargain and sentenced him to 25 years.