Jerusalem — Two Jewish teenagers were found guilty of murder by an Israeli court on Monday for their role in the kidnapping and killing of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a Palestinian 16-year-old who was bludgeoned and burned to death in a Jerusalem forest in July 2014.

The episode enraged Palestinians and shocked Israelis, and it contributed to a spiral of violence that culminated in that summer’s 50-day war in Gaza.

The court said that the hearings for the sentencing of the teenagers, who were not identified because they were minors at the time of the crime, would begin in mid-January. The court can formally convict minors only after the evaluation of an authorized social worker, according to the state prosecutor.

The Jerusalem District Court also determined that the main defendant, Yosef Haim Ben-David, 31, who is related to the two teenagers, had carried out the crimes he was charged with.

The court delayed issuing a verdict in his case, however, after his lawyer submitted a last-minute psychiatric evaluation raising doubts about his responsibility for his actions at the time of the crime, a development that added to Palestinian fury.

The court said in a statement that the psychiatric evaluation was submitted only days before a verdict was due, “contrary to proper and appropriate procedure,” and that Ben-David’s case would be discussed on Dec. 20.

Asher Ohayon, the public defender who represents Ben-David, told Israel Radio that there were “real reasons” the evaluation was not submitted earlier, but he did not elaborate.

Hussein Abu Khdeir, Muhammad’s father, who attended the court hearings, has often said that he expected Ben-David would plead insanity and that he feared Ben-David would be treated with leniency.

Speaking to reporters outside the court immediately after Monday’s session, he said that Ben-David’s late-hour psychiatric report “made a joke of the court” and added, “My blood is boiling.”

One of the teenagers was also convicted of attempting to kidnap a Palestinian boy, along with Ben-David, in the same area of East Jerusalem the night before Muhammad’s abduction, and of assaulting the boy and his mother.

The abduction and killing set off unrest in the predominantly Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem that continues to simmer.