Seventeen people were sentenced to death on Thursday by an Egyptian military court for a series of attacks on churches and a police checkpoint in 2016 and 2017 that left around 80 people dead.

The court handed life sentences to 19 others for the attacks, while 10 more received jail terms of between 10 and 15 years, judicial and security officials said. The sentences are subject to appeal.

Over 70 people were killed in attacks targeting Coptic Christians in 2016 and 2017, which were claimed by ISIL. 

On Dec. 11, 2016, a suicide attack on the Saint Peter and Saint Paul church killed 29 in the heart of Cairo. The following April, 45 people were killed as Christians gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday in Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta.

Christian sites of worship across Egypt have been repeatedly targeted in attacks claimed by ISIL, prompting the authorities to impose a state of emergency 18 months ago.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Sunni Muslim population.

State news agency MENA reported that some of the defendants on trial were also suspected of carrying out an attack on a checkpoint in Egypt's Western Desert that killed at least eight policemen last year.

Since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, hundreds of police officers, soldiers and civilians have been killed in jihadist attacks.

Egypt's military is now conducting a major operation against Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula, where Christians have also been targeted.

(Top picture: Relatives mourn the victims of the Palm Sunday bombings at the Monastery of Saint Mina in Alexandria, Egypt, April 10, 2017. /VCG Photo)