Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks with journalists at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah on October 6, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)
An official from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s office said Friday that the PA chief was misled before he accused Israelis of executing a Palestinian boy who is recovering from wounds he sustained while trying to stab Jews.
The statement by the unnamed official from Abbas’s office Friday came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Abbas of spreading “incitement and lies” by describing what happened to 13-year-old Ahmed Manasra in Jerusalem on October 12 as a cold-blooded execution.
Gal Berger, Israel Radio’s reporter on the Arab world, said that an official from Abbas’s office told him that Abbas “was given the incorrect information right before the speech as a last-minute addition.”
In the speech in Ramallah on Wednesday, Abbas spoke out against “aggression by Israel and its settlers, who commit terror against our people,” and who “execute our children in cold blood, as they did to the child Ahmed Manasra and other children in Jerusalem and elsewhere.”
Ahmad Manasra, one of two cousins who went on a stabbing spree in Jerusalem on October 12, 2015 is seen at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem on October 15, 2015. Manasra was hit by a car while fleeing from the scene of the attack. (Courtesy)
Ahmed Manasra and his 17-year-old cousin, Hassan, were filmed stabbing a 25-year-old man in Pisgat Zeev, a neighborhood located in northeastern Jerusalem, causing the man serious injuries before stabbing a second victim — a 13-year-old Jewish boy, in the neck.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
Police officers shot and killed Hassan Manasra as he ran toward them wielding a knife. Ahmed Manasra was injured and taken to hospital in serious condition. His condition is stable, according to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
