Suicidal Afula ‘attacker’ says she never meant any harm

A Nazareth woman who was shot when she brandished a knife at a bus station in the city of Afula last month says she meant no harm to anyone, a day after she was released to house arrest in light of a court ruling that found her to have not intended to carry out a terror attack.

“I did not threaten anybody, and did not mean to hurt anyone,” Asra’a Zidan Abed, 30, says, according to Channel 10.

“[Security forces] could have taken away the knife without hurting me,” Abed charges. “Still I’m not mad at anybody, I am a graduate of the Technion [in Haifa] and want with my certificate to contribute to society and continue to live in peace and quiet with everyone.”

Abed will not face charges for attempted murder. Instead, she faces minor charges of carrying a dangerous weapon.

Police and Shin Bet investigators say they believe Abed did not plan to stab anyone when she wielded the knife at the Afula station, but was pretending to be a Palestinian terrorist in the hope that she would be shot by security forces.

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Earlier in the investigation police said they thought Abed may suffer from mental health issues. Suspicions were confirmed after discovering a history of suicide attempts and hospitalizations, the police said at the time. Investigators think she was trying to commit suicide, having recently lost custody of a child.

During the incident, she was moderately injured after being shot in the leg.

Abed will remain under house arrest pending her trial.