ISRAELI SHOOTS, INJURES PALESTINIAN WOMAN AFTER STAB ATTACK
Bethlehem, 24 Dhulhijjah 1436/8 October 2015 (MINA) – An Israeli civilian shot and injured a Palestinian woman in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem after she allegedly tried to stab him, an Israeli police spokesperson told Ma’an.
Micky Rosenfeld told Ma’an that the armed Israeli man, 35, shot the woman, 18, from close range after she tried to attack him with a knife, referring to the woman as a “terrorist.”, Maan News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Israeli police units are currently at the scene investigating the incident, he added.
Israeli media said the man sustained light injuries.
Locals identified the suspect as Shuroq Salah Dwayat from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Bahir. She was reportedly a student at Bethlehem University.
Medics told Ma’an that Dwayat was shot four times in the upper body and is currently in a stable but serious condition and handcuffed to a hospital bed.
A Ma’an reporter said Israeli forces raided her home in Sur Bahir following the incident.
Israeli forces briefly closed off the Damascus Gate area and forced shop owners to close their stores following the shooting.
Witness accounts to Ma’an claim that an Israeli man opened fire at the teenager while she was near a pharmacy in the al-Wad Street in the Old City, a few meters away from the Council Gate leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque.
They said she was assaulted by the Israeli man and did not have any sharp objects on her person.
On Oct. 3, two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City for allegedly carrying out stabbing attacks against Israelis.
Mohannad Shafiq Halabi, 19, stabbed and killed two Israelis in the Old City and was shot dead on scene.
Hours later, Fadi Samir Mustafa Alloun, 19, was shot dead after reportedly attempting to stab Israelis. Video footage of the incident went viral shortly after, suggesting Alloun’s death came after Israelis egged on Israeli police forces to shoot the teen.
‘Collective punishment’
In the past month, Israeli authorities have passed a new four-year minimum sentence for stone-throwers, authorized the use of live ammunition against stone-throwers, and increased restrictions on Palestinians in the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israeli police on Sunday instituted a 48-hour ban on Palestinian entry into the Old City in an alleged effort to prevent further escalation in the area.
The ban allows only Israeli Jews, tourists, and Palestinian residents and store owners to enter the Old City. Rosenfeld told Ma’an at the time the exact end time for the restrictions was not known.
Israeli authorities say the restrictions are necessary for the protection of Israelis and to calm tensions around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, however critics argue such restrictions amount to collective punishment against Palestinians while privileging Jewish residents of the state.
Following the death of two Israelis on Saturday night, hundreds of Israelis reportedly attempted to march to the Muslim quarter of the Old City calling for “death to Arabs” and “death to terrorists.”
While the mob was initially stopped by Israeli police, small groups of Israeli youth were seen running throughout Jerusalem “searching for Arabs,” and a large mob later arrived to the Old City prior to Alloun’s death.
Palestinians in the Old City closed their shops and many left the area.
PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat on Tuesday called on Israel to end its “collective punishment of the Palestinian civilian population.”
Erekat pointed mainly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “racist oppressive policies across occupied Palestine, and particularly in and around occupied East Jerusalem.” (T/P010/R03)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
