Palestinian stone-throwing left an Israeli boy needing medical care. Israeli MDA ambulance. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
Palestinian stone-throwers have long been a symbol of their fight against Israel—but violently chucking rocks is much more than just symbolic. The latest rock-throwing assault injured a 12-year-old Israeli boy in the head and the Palestinian assailant was caught on camera in the act. The IDF Spokesperson’s Twitter feed included video of the Palestinian attacker on Saturday leaning over a wall in Hebron and throwing a rock below before running away. The IDF Spokesperson tweeted that that the injured boy was “taken to receive medical treatment, including stitches. Such violence is nothing less than terror.”
Dani Dayan, head of Israel’s consulate in New York, on Twitter called it a “murder attempt of a 12-yrs-old Israeli boy by a Palestinian adult throwing a rock on his head.” Israeli Prime Minister’s Office Spokesman Ofir Gendelman felt similarly, but noted that the Palestinians do not. “A Palestinian throws a rock on the head of an Israeli boy, tries to kill him. The boy was injured. Palestinians say this terrorist is a hero,” tweeted Gendelman, who is fluent in Arabic. And this isn’t the first time Palestinian rock-throwing has led to dangerous—if not deadly—results.
Back in 2015, 64-year-old Israeli Alexander Levlovich was killed when his car crashed after being hit by Palestinian rock-throwing. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted to their website a recap of the incident, quoting Levlovich’s son, Nir, who wrote, “One stone changed the course of my life.”
In 2011, a similar incident occurred in which an Israeli man and his one-year-old son were murdered when a rock thrown at their vehicle knocked the driver unconscious. The Times of Israel reported that the Palestinian guilty of the attack was convicted of murder.
Following the attack on Levlovich in 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the true danger of Palestinian rocks and stones.
“A thug and criminal stands here, on a traffic island, takes a stone and throws again and again at the windshields of cars of Jerusalem residents until he manages to cause death—it did not kill, it murdered,” said Netanyahu in comments released by his office at the time. “This stone is one too many.”
On Saturday, another stone attack showed the threat is not over yet.
Yesterday, a Palestinian threw a rock at a 12 year old boy at Hebron. Forces are searching the area for the attacker pic.twitter.com/3B7JzDP43g
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) October 21, 2017
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, October 22, 2017)