Three Palestinians shot dead as Israelis ‘thwart separate knife attacks’
Three Palestinians were shot dead by Israelis on Saturday in what were described as thwarted knife attacks ratcheting tensions a further notch in the region. Among them was a 16-year-old boy who tried to stab policemen as he was challenged while walking in “a suspicious manner” through a neighborhood around East Jerusalem. A Palestinian was also shot dead and killed as he reportedly attempted to stab an Israeli in the West Bank city of Hebron. In the third incident, a Palestinian woman was shot dead by a policewoman after she stabbed her in the hand. However, witnesses have cast doubt on the Israeli version of events, saying the Hebron shooting happened when Jewish settlers attacked an unarmed Palestinian.
He was holding his bag suspiciously, I thought it was an explosive
Uri Nuriel, who alerted police to the boy in East Jerusalem
The latest shootings will do little to ease tensions which have seen a string of tit for tat stabbings and shootings in recent weeks. Fears are growing in Israel of another violent Palestinian uprising. Earlier, Danny Danon, Israel’s new ambassador to the United Nations, claimed Palestinian children were being taught how to stab a Jewish person as part of their being “brainwashed” with “incitement and hate”. During a speech to the security council he held up a piece of card with a diagram of a human body entitled “How to Stab a Jew”, which he says is “an example of what Palestinian children are being exposed to day in and day out, in school, after school”. His words come just hours after a Palestinian man was shot dead after posing as a journalist to stab an Israeli soldier. As hundreds of Palestinians joined the funeral of Ayad Awawdeh in the West Bank village of Dura on Saturday, his mother said her son had “watched the news on television the whole time and exploded with anger at seeing so many horrors”.
When he opens a textbook, he doesn’t learn about math and science, he’s being taught to hate.
Danny Danon, Israel’s new ambassador to the United Nations
Middle East Israel violence