Amiram Ben Uliel, convicted of the Duma arson murder in July 2015, in which three members of the Dawabsha family were killed, attends a hearing on his appeal, at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, on March 7, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Jewish terrorist who killed Palestinian family said allowed conjugal visits

Amiram Ben Uliel, who perpetrated 2015 Duma firebombing that killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha and his parents, has been in prison for a decade and is serving three life sentences

by · The Times of Israel

The Jewish terrorist who firebombed a home in the Palestinian West Bank village of Duma in 2015, killing a baby and his parents, will be allowed conjugal visits with his wife for the first time since he went behind bars 10 years ago, according to Hebrew media.

Amiram Ben Uliel, now 31, was arrested in December 2015 for the attack the previous July, which killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha, along with parents Sa’ad and Riham, and injured then-5-year-old Ahmed. He was convicted in 2020 and given three life sentences.

The attack sparked widespread outcry in Israel and globally, and drew attention to rising Jewish extremism in the West Bank. An accomplice, who was underage at the time of the attack, was also convicted and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Previous requests for conjugal visits, including two filed by Ben Uliel’s attorney over the past year, have been rejected on the basis that he still posed a danger and had become a symbol for the far right.

But according to Hebrew media reports, security officials recently met with Ben Uliel and assessed that the danger he poses has decreased after a decade behind bars.

Channel 12 reported that Naomi Levinov, a lawyer with the Central District’s prosecutor’s office, sent a letter to the court indicating that he poses a lower risk. That led the state to cancel a hearing scheduled for tomorrow over the issue, and to drop its opposition to the visits between Ben Uliel and his wife, Oriane, whom he married and with whom he had a child prior to going to prison.

“After weighing all of the relevant considerations, it was decided not to object to the request,” said Ben Uliel’s lawyer, Guy Erenberg, according to Ynet. “The Prison Service will arrange the time to allow him to be together with his wife.”

Oriane Ben Uliel, wife of Amiram Ben Uliel, arrives to hear his verdict in a terror attack in the West Bank village of Duma, where three members of the Dawabsha family were killed, September 14, 2020. (Yossi Zeliger/POOL)

Ben Uliel has received ongoing support in the years since he was convicted. His lawyer in 2016, Itamar Ben Gvir, is now Israel’s national security minister.

In 2022, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the terrorist, writing that there was “no doubt” Ben Uliel had committed the “shocking and deeply disturbing” attack on the Palestinian family’s home.

Saad and Riham Dawabsha, with baby Ali. All three died when the Dawabsha home in the West Bank village of Duma was firebombed by Jewish extremists on July 31, 2015 (Channel 2 screenshot)

In September 2023, a fundraising campaign to free Ben Uliel raised over NIS 1.2 million ($375,000). It garnered the support of 6,000 donors, reportedly including right-wing rabbis and the singer Ariel Zilber.

That same month, far-right MK Limor Son Har-Melech, of Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, called Ben Uliel a “holy righteous man” and said his imprisonment was a “crime,” claiming he was innocent.

In October 2025, she spearheaded a letter calling on President Isaac Herzog to pardon Jewish security prisoners held in Israeli jails following the release of Palestinian security prisoners under the Gaza ceasefire deal.

The letter was signed by 55 lawmakers, including Ben Gvir, Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Culture Minister Miki Zohar and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Sam Sokol contributed to this report.