Palestinian family names baby after Old City terrorist
Gaza mother shares 'joyous' phone call with mother of Muhannad Halabi, who killed Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Bennett on Saturday night
A Palestinian family in Gaza named its newborn baby after the terrorist Muhannad Halabi, who stabbed to death Israelis Nehemia Lavi and Aharon Banita in Jerusalem’s Old City on Saturday night, badly injured Aharon’s wife Adele and lightly hurt their two-year-old son Matan, an Israel watchdog group reported Tuesday.
Halabi was shot dead by security forces after he snatched a gun and opened fire on them.
News of the Gaza baby-naming was reported by the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa, and by the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, with both describing the terrorist as a “hero of our people” who was “murdered by the occupation army,” the Palestinian Media Watch organization said.
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida’s headline read, “Muhannad the newborn hugs Muhannad the Martyr, and the two of them unite the homeland,” PMW said.
It said the new baby was named in his honor even before “the martyr” Halabi was buried.
The two mothers spoke by phone, and during their conversation, said Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, they “cried from joy: The mother of the baby cried from joy at the birth of her baby, who eternalized the name of the hero among the heroes of our eternal people, and the second mother cried from joy at the birth of the baby that will eternalize the name of her son the Martyr.”
