RAMALLAH, West Bank: Israeli soldiers wounded three Palestinians at the Howara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday after a Palestinian woman attacked an Israeli soldier with acid, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
The Palestinian sources identified the woman as 19-year-old Sanabil Braik, a student at An-Najah University in Nablus. Israeli sources said that the soldier was moderately wounded when Braik threw acid in his face, which is the second such incident in two weeks at the checkpoint to the south of Nablus. After the incident, the Israeli forces arrested the woman and opened fire at Palestinians who were waiting to cross the checkpoint, wounding three of them, including a woman and two youths, witnesses said.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the woman was injured in her right leg, one of the youths was hit by a gunshot in his waist and another was injured in his left leg. All three were evacuated to the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. The witnesses said that Israeli soldiers closed the checkpoint after the incident.
Sanabil’s father, owner of a local TV station, was shocked at the news. He said that Sanabil “left home as usual at 7 a.m. on her way to university, and I am still surprised to hear what she did.”
Israeli security sources believe Sanabil is the same person who poured acid on an Israeli soldier at the checkpoint about two weeks ago. The soldier was lightly injured.
Ze’evi’s killing
In another development, the Jerusalem District Court yesterday sentenced a Palestinian activist to life in prison and an additional 80 years for his involvement in the killing of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001 at Jerusalem’s Hyatt Hotel.
The 43-year-old Majdi Al-Rimawi, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is believed to be the mastermind of the operation in which Ze’evi was shot dead.
The PFLP claimed responsibility for assassinating Ze’evi in response to the killing of its Secretary General Abu Ali Mustafa in an Israeli airstrike at his office in Ramallah the same year.
Al-Rimawi’s lawyer, Hassan Mahmoud, questioned the legality of the trail, saying the Jerusalem District Court was not the competent authority to deal with this case since the assassination of the minister took place “in East Jerusalem which is a territory under occupation.”
