Palestinian teen who tried to stab police wanted to die a ‘martyr’
Qutayba Ziad Zahran, 17, took to Facebook before attempting to kill Israeli border police
A Palestinian teen who attempted to stab Israeli Border Police officers at a West Bank junction posted on Facebook a will in which he said he intended to carry out an attack and die a “martyr.”
The Facebook post was reported by the Palestinian Maan news agency hours after Saturday’s attack at the Tapuah Junction in the northern West Bank.
The assailant, identified as Qutayba Ziad Zahran, 17, of Tulkarem, approached the border police stationed near Tapuah Junction and pulled out the knife from his bag after he was ordered to stop by the officers.
He was shot dead by police officers after attempting to stab one of them, according to the Israel Police.
One officer was taken to an Israeli hospital after getting hit in the foot with shrapnel while fellow officers thwarted the attack.
In his Facebook post, Zahran shared a photo depicting a “martyr’s funeral,” with a body shrouded in a green cloth like the Hamas flag, being carried by a crowd of gunmen wearing green headbands. “How I long for a procession like this,” read the text written across the photo, Maan reported.
“Here I have achieved my wish and I am about to die a martyr for the sake of God, armed with the determination of mujahidin (fighters). I have left this mortal world, rushing to the immortal life in paradise where I will meet God’s chosen prophet, peace be upon him, alongside prophets, companions, and virtuous people. You should know, my family, that I haven’t left you because I am fed up with you, or because you were bad to me, but only because martyrdom has called upon me after I have been wishing to obtain it for a while,” he reportedly wrote in his post.
He asked his family not to cry during his funeral procession but to instead “utter trilling cries of joy.”
On Saturday night a Palestinian man, 21, was arrested in the central Israel coastal city of Netanya after he was found to be carrying a concealed knife.
The Palestinian man, also from the city of Tulkarem, was in Israel illegally and told police during questioning that he had intended to carry out a stabbing attack.
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