JERUSALEM – A 13-year-old Palestinian boy, eulogized by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as a martyr killed by Israelis during the current cycle of violence, has been shown by street cameras to be engaging with a 15-year-old cousin in a stabbing rampage in a Jewish neighborhood.
Eyewitnesses said the 13-year-old, Ahmed Mansara, repeatedly stabbed a Jewish boy of the same age as he was getting on his bicycle outside a candy store.
Photographs published on Israeli web sites Thursday also confirm that Mansara is alive. He is shown lying in a hospital bed in Jerusalem with a bandage on his head but looking otherwise well and quite alert.
Apart from the physical confrontation that began two weeks ago between Palestinians wielding knives and Israeli civilians and security forces—a propaganda war is also underway, with the Palestinians claiming that knife wielders killed by police were being summarily executed, victims of "Israeli terror."
The stabbing of the 13-year-old Israeli boy on Wednesday in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev was particularly shocking, given the age of the victim and of his assailant. The cameras show the two Palestinian boys running down a street in pursuit of a victim, knives clearly visible in their hands.
According to the police account, the man running from them had been stabbed moments before by the older boy but managed to make his escape, even though he was seriously wounded. Shortly afterwards, the older boy sees police approaching about 30 yards away. He runs towards them with what seems clear intent to stab but is cut down in a hail of bullets.
A video from a camera in a candy store shows the Jewish boy on his way out after making his purchase and getting on his bicycle parked outside. The actual stabbing is not seen, but eyewitnesses said the two Palestinian youths repeatedly stabbed him in the neck and elsewhere. The store owner is seen running out to intervene. According to police, a driver who saw the younger Palestinian stabbing the 13-year-old drove onto the sidewalk, hitting Mansara with the vehicle. The Jewish boy was taken to hospital where his condition was reported to have stabilized despite considerable loss of blood.
President Abbas, in a talk at his offices in Ramallah before the videos and photographs were released, said that Mansara had been "executed." He made no mention of him attacking Israelis. The Palestinian Authority, he said, would file a complaint with the International Criminal Court at the Hague. "The aggression against our people," he said, "requires international intervention."