By Nuha Sharaf
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A Palestinian girl whose family faces eviction by Israel from an East Jerusalem neighbourhood was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of stabbing a Jewish settler in front of her children, residents and police said.
The stabbed woman, named by her husband as Moria Cohen, was moderately wounded, according to an ambulance service and police.
The incident marked an escalation in long-running tensions around Sheikh Jarrah that have rallied Palestinians and, last May, stoked a surge in fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas.
Israeli police said they arrested a 14-year-old female suspect at a school after the morning assault in the street outside. A police statement, which did not name the girl, said “a number of women close to her”, had also been detained for questioning.
The wounded woman was admitted to hospital with a 30 cm (12 inch)-long knife lodged in her back, a surgeon said, declining to be named.
Residents said two sisters from the Hammad family, which is in a legal battle with settlers claiming the family’s house, had been taken into custody, along with their mother. One of the sisters, Nofoud Hammad, is 14. The residents said they did not witness the reported stabbing. The family declined comment.
Cohen lives across from the Hammads’ home. Cohen’s husband Dvir, asked whether his family would stay in the neighbourhood despite the stabbing, told reporters: “Yes. It’s our mission.”
Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in a 1967 war. Palestinians want these areas for a future state. The United States, whose peace efforts stalled in 2014, has voiced concern over settlements and evictions in East Jerusalem, as well as violence.
The Palestinian families facing eviction from Sheikh Jarrah have lived in their homes for decades. Settlers claim the land as theirs and have presented 19th-century documents as evidence.
Israel’s Supreme Court is considering an appeal by the Hammad family to overturn a lower court’s eviction order, the anti-settlement Peace Now group said.
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams; editing by Jeffrey Heller and Philippa Fletcher)
