‘I’m going to become a martyr,’ Palestinian teen wrote before attack
Shortly before stabbing an Israeli man in Jerusalem, Shorouq Dwayyat posted on Facebook that her ‘greatest desire’ was to die ‘for Allah’
A Palestinian teen who stabbed an Israeli man in a terror attack Wednesday wrote of her desire to become a shahid, or martyr, hours before carrying out the knifing.
“I’m going to become a shahid [martyr],” 18-year-old Shorouq Dwayyat wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday morning.
In the post, Dwayyat, a resident of East Jerusalem’s Tsur Baher neighborhood and a student at Bethlehem University, wrote:
“Mother: Where are you going?
Mother, I am going to become a shahid
Mother, I want to ask a request of you
Don’t cry about me, when I become a shahid
#Our greatest desire is to become shadids for Allah”
Dwayyat was evacuated in critical condition to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem after being shot by the Israeli man she stabbed in the back near the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City Wednesday morning.
In an interview with Channel 2, Dwayyat’s mother claimed her daughter stabbed the Israeli in self-defense after he attempted to pull off her head covering. She said Shorouq had told her she was going to pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque before going to Bethlehem for classes. She was apparently unaware of her daughter’s Facebook post.
Several members of the Dwayyat family scuffled with police officers at the hospital Wednesday afternoon after they were barred from seeing her. One of the family members was detained by police for questioning.
Wednesday’s terror attack took place close to where a Palestinian man stabbed two Israeli men to death Saturday night. The wife of one of those murdered and her toddler child were also wounded in that attack, while the stabber was shot dead by security forces.
Palestinians have reacted violently over allegations that Israel has been seeking to curtail Muslim rights at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, and to alter longstanding rules that ban Jews from praying there.
Israel has repeatedly denied the allegations, asserting that it is not planning to change the status quo at the flashpoint compound.
