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Terrorist murders Israeli policewoman

Hadas Malka

Hadas Malka

JERUSALEM — Hadas Malka, a 23-year-old border policewoman died of her injuries on June 16 after being critically wounded in a combined stabbing and shooting attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City. Three terrorists were shot dead in the incident.

According to a police spokesman, two attacks took place around 7:30 p.m. as Shabbat descended on the city.

In one attack, two terrorists shot at a police patrol and attempted to stab the officers. The two were shot dead by police.

In the second incident, a terrorist stabbed Malka as she and her patrol heard shooting and ran toward the scene of the first attack.

Malka suffered critical injuries and was taken to Hadassah Mt. Scopus Hospital where she died of her wounds.

Several other people were wounded in the incident, one of them a police officer and another a resident of eastern Jerusalem. Police said they were checking whether any of the wounded were connected in any way to the attack.

One of the three terrorists was armed with a non-standard Carl Gustav automatic rifle and the others carried knives, police said.

“Two incidents took place within  100 meters of each other,” Jerusalem Police Chief Yoram Halevy said at the scene.

“In one incident outside the Damascus Gate, a terrorist stabbed an on-duty police woman, injuring her critically. The terrorist was shot by other officers at the scene.

“In the other incident opposite Zedekiah’s Cave, two terrorists, one armed with an automatic weapon and the other with a knife, attacked officers. The officers shot back and killed the assailants.”

A spokesman for the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) named the three dead assailants as Ibrahim Salah, Adel Ankoush and Osama Atta, all from the village of Deir Abu Mash’al, which is some 24 kilometers west of Ramallah.

The Shin Bet said all three had either been arrested by Israeli security forces in the past or were known to have been involved in terrorist activities.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the terror attack in Jerusalem, which would be its first attack in Israel, although the terror group said it “will not be the last.”

“The Lions of the Caliphate carried out an attack in the city of Jerusalem,” the group said in a statement in Arabic on its Amaq website.

A spokesman for Hamas welcomed the attack, calling it “proof that the Palestinian people will continue to fight the occupation.”

A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling Fatah party condemned what he called “the crimes of the occupation against three young Palestinians.”

In February, 2016, a female border police officer was killed in a similar shooting and stabbing attack in the same location outside the Damascus Gate.

Two arrests have been made in connection with the attacks, Israel Police announced Wednesday, June 21.

One, the mother of one of the terrorists, was arrested on suspicion of forging contacts with the intent of committing a crime.

Army Radio added that she is also suspected of incitement related to recent statements lauding shahids [martyrs] and calling for the harming of Jews. She is a resident of Deir Abu Mash’al.

Police also arrested on Wednesday a resident of Issawiya, an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem, on suspicion that he drove the terrorists to the site of the attack.

The detainee is suspected of knowing the terrorists’ intentions to perpetrate the attack but of failing to prevent them.

Investigators are expected to ask the Court to extend the remand of both suspects.

“I promised to Hadas’ father yesterday that we would get to the perpetrators of this attack, as we have done in previous attacks in Jerusalem,” said Jerusalem Police Chief Yoram Halevi.

“We will get to every person who had any connection at all to the attack and to anyone who dares to openly express support [for the attack] or to utter inciting statements or encourages people to support terror attacks like the one in which Hadas Malka was murdered.”

On Sunday, June 18, Malka, a resident of Moshav Givat Ezer, in central Israel, was laid to rest in the military section of the coastal city of Ashdod.

Thousands, including family, friends, government ministers and police officials came to pay their respects overnight between Saturday and Sunday.

She is survived by her parents, David and Geula, two brothers, Tamir and Guy and three sisters, Shaked, Netan and Gefen.

She began her military service in the Navy before moving to the border police.

After being discharged from the army in 2015, she returned to begin a military career a year later.

Although the family asked for media not to attend the funeral, the Hebrew-language Walla news site reported that Guy Malka, Hadas’ brother, eulogized his sister, saying: “You had so many dreams, we wanted to see you get married . . . Please, wake up, Hadassi, tell us this is all a bad dream.

“A goddamn terrorist has ruined our dreams. We’ll never forget you, our heroic sister who protected Jerusalem.”



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