Palestinians dismiss Daesh claim of killing Israel policewoman
occupied jerusalem — Palestinian militant factions on Saturday dismissed a claim by the Daesh group that it was behind the fatal stabbing of an Israeli policewoman in occupied Jerusalem, saying the assailants came from their ranks.
Israeli authorities also said on Saturday they had found no evidence of Daesh involvement in the attack.
Three Palestinians attacked officers just outside the walled Old City in occupied east Jerusalem late on Friday before being shot dead by security forces, Israeli police said.
In an online statement, Daesh said its militants had targeted a “gathering of Jews”, warning that “this attack will not be the last”.
But Hamas, the Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, dismissed the claim, saying the attackers had come from among its own ranks and those of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
According to police, two assailants opened fire on a group of officers who returned fire, and a third stabbed the border policewoman a short distance away before being shot.
Policewoman Hadas Malka, a 23-year-old staff sergeant major, was taken to hospital in critical condition and later died of her wounds.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Daesh claim was an attempt to “muddy the waters”, adding that the attack was carried out by “two Palestinians from the PFLP and a third from Hamas”. The killing was “a natural response to the crimes of the occupier,” he said.
A spokesman for Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said it was “impossible to corroborate (the Daesh claim) at this point”.
The Israeli army said the assailants appeared to have acted independently, like many of the attackers in a wave of unrest that has rocked Israel and the occupied territories since October 2015.
“A preliminary army intelligence evaluation found no evidence of them belonging to any group, rather they appear to have been a typical popular terror squad,” an army spokeswoman said.
Hamas and the PFLP identified the three assailants as Bara Ata, 18, Osama Ata, 19, and Adel Ankush, 18, all from the village of Deir Abu Mashal near the West Bank city of Ramallah. —