An Israeli settler who murdered a Palestinian family in a 2015 firebomb attack has been handed three life sentences by a court in Israel.

Amiram Ben-Uliel, 26, broke into Saad Dawabsheh’s home in the village of Duma in the West Bank and set it alight with a Molotov cocktail. Mr Dawabsheh, his wife Riham and their 18-month-old baby Ali died following the attack.

Handing down the sentence, the Lod district court said Mr Ben-Uliel had meticulously planned the attack which had “stemmed from the radical ideology he held, and racism”.

Ben-Uliel had spray-painted “Revenge”, “Price tag” and “Long live the Messiah” on the walls of the house.

The killings were widely condemned by both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu describing it at the time as “an act of terrorism in every respect”.

Ali Dawabsheh died at the time of the attack; his father lived for a further week while his mother died five weeks after the attack. A four year old, Ahmed, survived the attack with severe burns.

Following the deaths of the Dawabsheh family, there was a spike in tension exacerbated by the stalled peace talks between Israel and Palestine.

Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service lauded Monday’s verdict as “an important milestone in the struggle against Jewish terrorism”.

A second, underage defendant was convicted as an accessory in a plea bargain, with a sentence pending.