2 Palestinians charged with terrorism for rock attack that injured baby

Prosecutors on Monday filed terror charges against two Palestinian men for throwing rocks at a car during clashes in Jerusalem earlier this month, lightly injuring a 7-month-old Jewish baby, who was struck in the head.

The suspects, residents of East Jerusalem’s A-Tur neighborhood ages 18 and 20, were indicted on suspicion of a terrorist act of aggravated sabotage, a terrorist act of throwing a rock at a vehicle, and intentionally damaging a car for racist motives.

Police announced the arrest of the two last week and prosecutors requested they remain in custody until the end of the legal proceedings.

According to the indictment, the baby was in the car with her parents as they drove from the Mount of Olives to Mount Scopus on the morning of May 10, when the father had to slow down while driving through A-Tur due to traffic.

The family was spotted by the suspects, who the indictment alleges then pelted the car with rocks “out of a nationalistic-ideological and racist motive.”

The rocks broke the windshield and one of them struck the baby in the head.

תינוקת בת 7 חודשים נפצעה כשנסעה ברכב עם הוריה לאחר שהמשפחה הותקפה ביום ירושלים ע"י תושבים ערבים. המשטרה הגישה היום הצהרת תובע נגד החשודים – תושבי שכונת א-טור. pic.twitter.com/ou8fR3aTb4

— סולימאן מסוודה سليمان مسودة (@SuleimanMas1) May 27, 2021

The incident occurred on Jerusalem Day, when major clashes erupted between Palestinian rioters and police on the Temple Mount amid escalating Israeli-Palestinian tensions over the city. Later that day, the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group fired volleys of rockets toward Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel, touching off 11 days of hostilities in the coastal enclave and days of rioting in ethnically mixed localities in Israel.

On Sunday, prosecutors hit four Jewish suspects with terror charges on suspicion of stabbing an Arab man two weeks ago in Jerusalem, seriously wounding him.