A Moroccan asylum seeker was on Friday sentenced to life in prison for randomly stabbing a British man to death in revenge for Israel's response to the October 7 attacks.

Ahmed Ali, 45, murdered "innocent" victim Terence Carney, 70, in the streets of the northeastern English town of Hartlepool, eight days after Hamas militants attacked Israel last October.

Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb told Alid he had "attacked and murdered... in a terrorist act", and said he would spend a minimum of 44 years behind bars.

She said he had "hoped to frighten the people of Britain and undermine the freedoms they enjoy" in actions "intended as revenge" for Israel's response to the Hamas attack.

Minutes before killing Carney, Alid had also attempted to murder his housemate, Christian convert Javed Nouri, by breaking into his bedroom and hacking at him while he slept.

Alid shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") during the attack at the government-approved asylum seekers' accommodation before fleeing into the street, still armed with a knife.

That attack on Nouri had been "an attempt to punish him for converting to Christianity", the judge said, adding that he had shown "no genuine remorse or pity" for his victims.

Alid admitted to police that Carney was "innocent" but justified killing him by saying Britain had created the "Zionist entity" of Israel and should make them leave, adding: "They killed children and I killed an old man."

He had denied murder, attempted murder, and assaulting two police officers.

He was unanimously found guilty of all four charges by a jury at Teesside Crown Court in Middlesbrough last month.

Detective Chief Superintendent James Dunkerley, head of counter-terrorism policing in northeast England who led the investigation, welcomed the lengthy sentence.

"Nothing can justify the actions of the defendant that day.... Today's sentence reflects the shocking and horrendous nature of the crimes this man has committed," he said.