Prosecutor seeks 12-year jail sentence for teen stabber

Ahmed Manasra was 13 when he seriously wounded 2 Israelis last year in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood

An Israeli prosecutor called Sunday for a 12-year jail term to be handed down to a Palestinian minor for stabbing an Israeli child in October 2015, his lawyer said.

Ahmed Manasra, a 14-year-old Palestinian, was convicted in May this year of the attempted murder of two Israelis in a knife attack last October.

He was 13 when he carried out the attack with his 15-year-old cousin Hassan Manasra.

The two stabbed and seriously wounded a 20-year-old and a 12-year-old boy in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev.

Hassan Manasra was shot dead by security forces, while Ahmed Manasra was hit by a car as they fled.

Manasra’s lawyer Lea Tzemel told journalists after a hearing behind closed doors that her client had apologized “to the child he stabbed, who was present in court.”

The bicycle a 13-year-old boy was riding before he was stabbed in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of Jerusalem on October 12, 2015. (Israel Police Spokesperson's Unit) — The bicycle a 13-year-old boy was riding before he was stabbed in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of Jerusalem on October 12, 2015. (Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit)

After his conviction in May, she said Manasra “said he just wanted to scare Jews so they’d stop killing Palestinians.”

“The prosecution is demanding a 12-year prison sentence,” she said on Sunday.

“We have requested a procedure of reintegration, given that he is a minor and minors have more rights when it comes to reintegration into society,” Tzemel added.

Manasra, an East Jerusalem resident, was the youngest Palestinian to be convicted by an Israeli civilian court in the current round of terrorism and violence.

Early last month, Israeli lawmakers approved jailing children as young as 12 convicted of “terrorist offenses” following repeated attacks by young Palestinians.

Since last October, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese were killed in a wave of Palestinian car-ramming, stabbing, shooting, and bombing attacks.

Some 230 Palestinians and one Jordanian were also killed during that period. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead during protests or killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.

The court is to sentence Manasra on November 7.