Palestinian/ Israeli update 10/11/2016.. Israel shuts West Bank, Gaza ahead of Jewish holiday

Israel shuts West Bank, Gaza ahead of Jewish holiday

Jerusalem’s Palestinians punished after shooting attack

Maureen Clare Murphy

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/jerusalems-palestinians-punished-after-shooting-attack

Israel launched a crackdown following a shooting attack in Jerusalem on Sunday that left two Israelis and the Palestinian gunman dead. Though a gag order prevents Israeli media from publishing the name of the slain attacker, Palestinian outlets identified him as Misbah Abu Sbeih, a 39-year-old from Silwan, a neighborhood near the Old City of Jerusalem. The shooting began Sunday morning at a light rail stop across from Israeli police headquarters near Ammunition Hill in occupied East Jerusalem. An Israeli woman, Levanah Malichi, 60, was critically wounded and later died from her injuries, and a man was moderately wounded. “Another victim was then shot and moderately wounded at the nearby Clermont-Ganneau Street intersection. The assailant then fled to Sheikh Jarrah, where two Israel Police officers were wounded, one critically and one moderately,” the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reported. One of the officers, Yosef Kirme, 29, died of his injuries. Kirme was a member of Yasam, a militarized unit of Israel’s police force. A video of the scene shows Israeli forces shooting at Abu Sbeih’s car:

……………………Israel launched a series of punitive measures following Sunday’s attack.

Israeli forces stormed the Jerusalem-area town of al-Ram on Monday morning and detained Abu Sbeih’s 17-year-old daughter Iman, according to Ma’an. Relatives told the news agency that soldiers questioned the girl and Abu Sbeih’s wife before taking the teenager into custody.

On Monday, Iman Abu Sbeih made a video statement that went viral on social media, in which she praises her father’s attack and describes their close relationship.

Seven Palestinians were injured after confrontations erupted when Israeli forces raided al-Ram on Sunday, Ma’an reported.

A photographer with the Associated Press was lightly injured by Israeli forces while covering the confrontations.

The photographer, Majdi Mohammed, told the news agency that “one of the Israelis cursed him and ordered him to leave. He said that as he turned around to leave, he was shot from close range in the back of his shoulder, an area that was not covered by his protective vest.”

The Foreign Press Association stated that the incident was “the latest in a string of attacks by Israeli border police on journalists.”

Two Israeli soldiers were injured by stones thrown by residents.

Another home belonging to the Abu Sbeih family in the town of Kufr Aqab was raided on Sunday.

During the raids on the homes in Kufr Aqab and al-Ram, army engineers measured the houses in preparation for demolishing them, relatives of Abu Sbeih told Ma’an. Soldiers removed posters, flags and photographs of Abu Sbeih which had been displayed in al-Ram.

Israel has demolished homes belonging to the families of Palestinian attackers and suspected attackers over the past year.

More than 50 Palestinians were detained during overnight raids in the West Bank, more than half of them in the Jerusalem area.

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