Palestine: Palestinian teenage girl shot dead after alleged knife attack

JERUSALEM (AA & Ma’an): A Palestinian teenager girl was shot dead Monday after an alleged knife attack near the Ras Biddu checkpoint north of Jerusalem.

In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the name of the slain girl as17-year-old Sawsan Ali Dawud Mansur killed by Israeli soldiers.

Israeli Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld tweeted that a woman had attempted to stab a border police officer but that no officers had been injured in the alleged attack.

According to Ma’an News, Israeli police spokesperson Luba al-Samri said in a statement that a “female terrorist” allegedly attempted to carry out a stabbing attack, adding that the Palestinian pulled out a knife and attempted to stab a female border guard stationed at the checkpoint. Another officer immediately fired gunshots at the Palestinian teen and “neutralized” her.

The deadly incident came hours after the bodies of two Palestinians siblings were released to their families — the last Palestinians to be shot dead by Israeli forces before Monday as part of a wave of unrest which began in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in October.

Maram Abu Ismail, a pregnant mother of two, and her teenage brother Ibrahim were shot and killed by a privately contracted Israeli security officer at the notorious Qalandiya checkpoint last month after they allegedly threw a knife in the direction of Israeli forces, despite eyewitness accounts reporting the two had posed no threat to Israeli forces stationed at the site.

The Israeli Justice Ministry’s police investigation into the killings was dropped after it was revealed that a privately contracted security guard had killed the two siblings, rather than an Israeli police officer as had previously been thought.

Between last October and April of this year, more than 200 Palestinians were killed after allegedly staging attacks on Israelis or in clashes with Israeli troops.

Over the same period, more than 30 Israelis were killed in alleged knife or shooting attacks by Palestinians.