On 16 June 2017, two Palestinian men opened fire on Israeli police officers in the Old City of Jerusalem, injuring four of them. An additional attacker stabbed a policewoman, she was critically injured, and later died in hospital. All three attackers were shot and killed by the Israeli authorities. The

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Palestinian militant organisations

PFLP The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

and

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

rejected the claim, saying that the perpetrators were members of their groups. On 17 June, Israeli authorities said that the attack was under investigation and that there is no evidence yet for ISIL involvement. The attack was the third major terrorist attack in Jerusalem in 2017 after the 2017 Jerusalem Light Rail stabbing in which a British tourist was stabbed to death, and the

2017 Jerusalem truck attack A vehicle-ramming attack occurred in Jerusalem on 8 January 2017. A truck driven by an Arab citizen of Israel plowed into a group of uniformed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers disembarking from a bus on the Armon Hanatziv Esplanade in East ...

in which four Israeli soldiers were killed and 17 others wounded.

Background

Four soldiers were killed and 17 others injured in a truck ramming attack on . Several stabbing and shooting attacks followed, but most attacks resulted only in injuries or the attackers being killed. On 6 April, three months after the truck attack, an Israeli soldier was killed in a car ramming attack, making it the second deadly attack in Jerusalem in 2017. The attack occurred as the daily

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

fast was ending, the month of Ramadan being a period of heightened alert for terrorist attacks, including expressed call by

ISIL The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...

to attack western targets.

Attack

In the evening of 16 June 2017, a Palestinian man attacked a 23-year old policewoman with a knife, fatally injuring her before being shot dead. Moments after that attack, two Palestinian men armed with improvised "carlo" submachine guns opened fire on several other policemen in a different location, injuring four police officers before being shot dead. The victim of the attacks was identified as 23-year-old Hadas Malka. The attackers were identified as 18-year-old Adel Hasan Ahmad Ankoush, 18-year-old Baraa Ibrahim Salih Taha, 19-year-old Osama Ahmad Dahdouh all from the West Bank village of Deir Abu Mash'al near

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

. According to the Israeli army at least two of the assailants were known to be part of a local cell and had been jailed in the past for throwing stones and firebombs.

Reactions

Fatah Fatah ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

, the ruling faction of the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

, accused Israel of a war crime saying "Fatah condemns the war crime carried out by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem against three Palestinian teens,". The Israeli government, in response, demanded that the

condemn the attack saying "The Prime Minister demands that the Palestinian Authority condemn the attack and expects the international community to do so too". *

praised the attack, stating that "the attack in Jerusalem is new proof that the Palestinian people continue their revolution against the occupiers and that the intifada will continue until complete freedom is achieved." *UN Envoy

Nickolay Mladenov Nikolay Evtimov Mladenov (; born 5 May 1972) is a Bulgarian politician and diplomat, who worked for the United Nations. He served as Bulgaria's Minister of Defense from 27 July 2009 to 27 January 2010 and as the minister of foreign affairs in th ...

said "I condemn yesterday's shooting and stabbing attack by Palestinian assailants in the vicinity of the Old City of Jerusalem", "Such terrorist acts must be clearly condemned by all", and "I am appalled that once again some find it appropriate to justify such attacks as 'heroic.' They are unacceptable and seek to drag everyone into a new cycle of violence".

Responsibility claims

The

has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Palestinian militant organisations

and

rejected the claim, saying that the perpetrators were members of their groups. On 17 June, Israeli authorities said that the attack was under investigation and that there is no evidence yet for ISIL involvement. While the number of lone wolf attacks has significantly increased in recent spikes of Israeli-Palestinian violence and ISIL began active incitement on the Palestinian arena, until June 2017 the terror group had not claimed responsibility for attacks in Israel. However, in two incidents - the attackers at June 2016 Tel Aviv shooting and at January 2016 Tel Aviv shooting were found by investigators to be inspired by the

and not belonging to any Palestinian nationalist militant group.

Media coverage

The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

faced criticism in Israel over its coverage of the attack, which published an article titled "Three Palestinians killed after deadly stabbing in Jerusalem." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deemed the reporting biased for omitting the fact that the three perpetrators were neutralized because they killed an Israeli policewoman. Netanyahu ordered the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to reproach the BBC, which updated the article headline to read: "Israeli policewoman stabbed to death in Jerusalem." then the BBC issued an apology for this headline admitting that its focus on the slain assailants, not the Israeli victim, was inappropriate.

References