Abbas urges Israel to arrest ‘inciting’ officials
PA president says government should apprehend anyone who ‘adds fuel to the fire of violence’
Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Thursday on Israel to arrest officials who promote “violence and incitement,” a day after he falsely claimed a 13-year-old Palestinian terrorist who was hit by a car while fleeing from police earlier this week was an innocent victim “executed” by Israel.
“The Palestinian Authority demands an end to inciting statements by Israeli officials,” the PA president’s office said in a statement, according to Ynet. “We urge the Israeli government to act to arrest anyone who adds fuel to the fire of violence and incitement.”
The Israeli Government Press Office published on Thursday clips and images 13-year-old Ahmed Manasra, who is accused of participating in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem Monday with his cousin Hassan Manasra, 15. He was awake and sitting in a bed at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.
On Wednesday night, Abbas accused Israelis of “executing our boys in cold blood, as they did with the boy Ahmed Manasra and other children in Jerusalem and other places.”
Other Palestinian officials and relatives have also claimed that Manasra and his cousin were not involved in an attack.
The Prime Minister’s Office quickly issued a statement after the PA president’s speech, saying he was spreading “lies and incitement.”
“The boy he is referring to is alive and hospitalized in Hadassah after stabbing an Israeli child who was riding his bicycle,” the statement said.
On Thursday, the independent news website 0404 published a short clip clearly showing Ahmad Manasra alive and relatively well.
In another clip, the deputy head of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, where Manasra is hospitalized, could be seen saying the boy is “in moderate to light condition, hospitalized in one of our department and receiving good treatment. From a medical point of view, we will probably be able to discharge him in a few days.”
One victim of Monday’s stabbing is in moderate condition. Another, a 13-year-old boy, is still unconscious. His condition was upgraded from critical on Monday, when he was stabbed, to serious but not life threatening on Tuesday.
The attack was one in a series of nearly two dozen terror attacks over the last two weeks, many of which have involved East Jerusalem teens involved in stabbing attacks in the capital.
