Video from vehicular incident in Hebron leaked online
Unknown how video of incident reached the Palestinian outlets; IDF spokesperson says matter was being checked.
By NOAM AMIR/MAARIV HASHAVUA, YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUAUpdated: NOVEMBER 7, 2015 19:50Alleged car ramming attack in Hebron
A video showing the suspected car-ramming attack in Hebron on Friday demonstrates that the 72-year-old Palestinian suspect was not trying to harm IDF soldiers and that she was in fact executed, according to Palestinian reports. The video was posted over Palestinian social networks and news outlets and was likely taken from a Go-Pro video camera on the helmet on one of the IDF soldiers at the scene. In the video, the female suspect can be seen driving into the lane where the IDF soldiers were standing at what seems to be a fairly slow speed. Two of the soldiers can be stepping back and then one is heard saying get ready and then the soldiers begin shooting at the driver of the vehicle.It is unknown how the video of the incident reached the Palestinian outlets. An IDF spokesperson said that the matter was being checked. The suspect, killed on Highway 35 north of Hebron, was identified as Tharwat al-Sharawi, 72. According to official sources in Israel her husband, Fouad, was killed during the first intifada when IDF soldiers shot him in the Hebron area.The incident began when a suspicious vehicle drove at the soldiers, an army spokeswoman said on Friday, prompting soldiers from the Haruv Battalion, a part of the Kfir Infantry Brigade, to fire at the car. The army is treating the incident as a suspected ramming attack. Soldiers recovered a large commando knife from the woman's hand bag following the incident.Palestinian media claimed that the suspect was shot because she drove into a street that was closed to traffic."My mother went to eat lunch at Ras-al-Jura and she stopped to fill her car with gas. The soldiers shot her in cold blood and executed her for no reason," her son Ayoub said. No soldiers were injured in the Friday incident but a few of the bullets hit a gas station and two Palestinian bystanders were lightly wounded from shrapnel. They were treated at the scene.
Al-Sharawi was also treated at the scene and was evacuated to Sha're Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem where she died from her wounds. (Knife that the IDF found in Tharwat al-Sharawi's handbag, Photo credit: IDF)