Brother of teen Palestinian stabber was killed in clash with IDF in 2013
Mahmoud, the older brother of 16-year-old Hadil Awad, died months after a rubber bullet struck him in the neck
Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Hadil Wajia Awad, one of the Palestinian teenagers who perpetrated a stabbing attack in Jerusalem on Monday, was the younger sister of a man who was killed in clashes with the IDF two years ago.
Sixteen-year-old Awad was shot dead outside the Mahane Yehuda market on Monday, after stabbing an elderly Palestinian man whom she mistook for an Israeli Jew.
According to activists and human rights groups, Awad’s older brother Mahmoud died in November 2013 at the age of 24, nine months after sustaining an injury from a rubber bullet that struck him in the back of the neck during clashes with Israeli security forces near the Qalandiya checkpoint.
Israeli NGO B’Tselem reported at the time that Mahmoud Awad was shot at in violation of Israel Defense Forces regulations, which mandate that non-lethal weapons — such as small-caliber or rubber bullets — not be aimed at the upper body.
The rubber bullet penetrated Mahmoud’s skull, and he was operated on by doctors at the Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem after receiving initial treatment at a Ramallah hospital.
Nine months after the incident, a Military Police investigation was opened to determine the circumstances of his death. It appears the probe remains ongoing.
On Monday morning, Hadil and her 14-year-old cousin Nurhan Awad, both of them wielding scissors, tried to attack people near Jerusalem’s busy outdoor market.
They attacked a 70-year-old Palestinian resident of Bethlehem, mistaking him for a Jew, and stabbed him in his upper body.
Hadil was shot dead at the scene, while Nurhan was evacuated to an Israeli hospital in critical condition.
A 27-year-old guard was lightly hurt by shrapnel from gunfire aimed at the attackers, police said.
Several attackers in the weeks-long wave of Palestinian terror have been teens and adolescents. On Sunday, Knesset ministers gave initial approval for legislation to allow assailants under 14 years of age to be prosecuted.
In a separate terror attack later Monday, 18-year-old IDF soldier Ziv Mizrahi was killed at a gas station on Route 443 in the West Bank, close to the central town of Modiin.
Two others were hurt in the attack and evacuated to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for treatment. The Palestinian assailant was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in the area.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
