Abbas: "Israeli government executing our sons in cold blood"

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Police footage of stabbing attack in Pisgat Ze"ev

The Palestinian boy who PA President Mahmoud Abbas claimed was “executed in cold blood” by Israeli settlers, is alive and well – and a suspected attempted murderer, who nearly stabbed to death a 13-yearold Jewish boy and another man, surveillance video shows.On Monday afternoon, CCTV footage recently released by the Israeli Police shows Ahmed Manasra, 13, and Hassan Manasra, his 15-year-old cousin, chasing a terrified Israeli man who they just stabbed in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neigh- borhood, before giving up and looking for a new victim.The teenage terrorists can then be seen running with their knives still drawn toward a candy store that a Jewish boy exits to get on his bicycle.Seconds later, Ahmed and his accomplice are seen stabbing him in the neck, critically wounding him.After falling to the ground, the Jewish boy is kicked by one of his assailants, before the Palestinian teens flee the scene when a male store patron gives chase.In a separate surveillance video, taken near the city’s light rail, Hassan is seen charging police with the knife still in his hand, before being shot and killed.Ahmed was run down by a vehicle moments later.A video recorded by an Israeli bystander shows the 13-year-old writhing in pain with his legs bent backwards, while bleeding from his head. The clip, which has been viewed nearly 3 million times, also shows an unidentified man cursing the child for attempting to kill the Jewish boy.The man shouts “Die, son of a bitch!” before being escorted away by police.Within minutes, Ahmed Manasra was rushed to Hadassah- University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, where he is presently in good condition.However, during a Wednesday speech on Palestinian television, Abbas claimed Manasra was “executed in cold blood” by “Jewish settlers.”“We will not give up to the logic of brute force, policies of occupation and aggression practiced by the Israeli government and the herd of settlers who are engaged in terrorism against our people, our holy places, our homes, our trees and the execution of our children in cold blood, as they did with the child Ahmed Manasra and other children from Jerusalem,” he said.As he makes the false claim, a still image of Manasra appears in which he appears to be dead.According to an anonymous Palestinian official, Abbas knew the boy was alive when he recorded the broadcast.After seeing the incendiary broadcast, Hadassah issued a photo of Manasra to the press on Thursday morning. The image clearly shows that the boy was fully conscious and in stable condition, after being treated by a team of Israeli doctors.The hospital’s deputy director, Dr. Asher Salmon, went so far as to issue a videotaped statement to the international press, emphasizing that the Palestinian boy is in good condition and will be released in the coming days.“I would like to report regarding the condition of the 13-yearold child that we had admitted after the stabbing event in Pisgat Ze’ev,” Salmon said. “In general, his condition is good, he is mildly wounded, and he is now being treated in one of our best departments.”“I believe that he will be medically discharged in the next few days,” he continued.Despite Abbas’s patently false allegations, the Manasra case has become the focal point in the propaganda war between Jerusalem and Ramallah.On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arab-language media spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, issued a statement claiming that Abbas intentionally lied.“PA President Abbas intentionally lied about the boy because he wants a symbol to incite Palestinians to perpetrate more terrorist attacks,” Gendelman said.“Abbas intentionally lied claiming that this 13-year-old boy, who stabbed two Israelis, is dead. Except that he’s alive.”Nonetheless, Palestinian media have continued to claim that Manasra was shot dead.After proof that he was alive emerged, the boy’s father told an Israeli news program that his son was an innocent bystander when “a car came and struck him, and then the settlers beat him.”Netanyahu has beseeched Abbas to “stop lying” about the boy’s fate, demanding the Palestinian leader “not turn murderers into heroes.”“An Arab boy critically wounds a Jewish boy, and after the security forces stop him so that he cannot continue with his stabbing spree, he is turned into a martyr who was supposedly executed, having done no wrong,” Netanyahu said.“Well, first of all, he is not dead, he is alive. Second, he was not executed, he attempted to execute. He attempted to kill and execute, but your spokesperson announces the complete opposite in a distorted and outrageous statement.”Despite being presented with the irrefutable evidence, the PA still issued an altered English translation of Abbas’s speech saying that Israeli police shot Manasra “in cold blood.”Ariel Zilber contributed to this report.