An Israeli court has decided to strip a Palestinian attacker of his Israeli citizenship, legal sources said on Monday, in what a rights group said was the first ruling of its kind.
The Haifa district court decided to strip Alla Zayud of his citizenship on Sunday by applying a 2008 law that allows the interior ministry to deprive of their nationality those involved in "terrorist activities", the sources said.
Adalah, an Arab Israeli rights group, said it was the first court decision of its kind.
The 22-year-old Palestinian, from the town of Umm Al Fahm, was convicted on four counts of attempted murder after driving a car into Israeli soldiers and stabbing civilians in October 2015.
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He was sentenced to 25 years in jail in June last year.
Zayud's mother is an Israeli citizen while his father is a Palestinian with permanent residence in Israel.
Adalah and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said they would appeal the ruling to the Israeli supreme court.
The two rights organisations said the court decision deviated "from the principles of international law, and from the general rule according to which an individual cannot be stripped of (their) citizenship and left stateless".
Palestinian citizens of Israel number around 1.4 million, making up some 18 per cent of Israel's population.
