13-year-old stabber released from hospital, arrested

Ahmed Manasra, the 13-year-old terrorist who stabbed an Israeli child of the same age in northern Jerusalem last week, was released from Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem on Sunday night.

He was promptly arrested by police.

Manasra is the youngest attacker in a wave of Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks against Israelis that began at the start of this month. The average age of the attackers is estimated at between 19 and 20 years old.

Manasra became the center of an Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic spat after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech in Ramallah last Wednesday, 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.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Abbas of spreading “incitement and lies” in his claim that Manasra was killed after his October 12 stabbing of the 13-year-old Jewish boy — who is still in hospital.

On Friday, an official from Abbas’s office walked back the accusation, saying the PA chief was misled.

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.”

Manasra was in moderate condition after he was hit by a vehicle as he fled the scene of the attack.

Manasra’s 17-year-old cousin, Hassan, joined him in the attack, which took place in Jerusalem Pisgat Zeev neighborhood. The two were filmed stabbing a 25-year-old man, causing the man serious injuries, before stabbing the 13-year-old Jewish boy in the neck as he rode his bike.

Police officers shot and killed the older Hassan as he ran toward them wielding a knife.

JTA contributed to this report.