The family of a dead Jerusalem terrorist was remanded into custody for two days Monday by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court after Muhammad Ibrahim Mattar was shot and critically injured while attacking Border Guard Police at the Lion’s Gate entrance to the Old City in the capital. He later died of his wounds.
The 25-year-old attacker was eliminated after he stabbed and seriously wounded two 20-year-old police officers in the attack. Both were treated at the scene by paramedics with the Magen David Adom emergency medical service before being evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center.
Police went to Mattar’s home in the nearby neighborhood of Jabel Mukabar within hours after the attack to collect evidence, including a Hamas terrorist organization flag.
Jabel Mukabar is a Jerusalem Arab neighborhood whose main export appears to be young terrorists. In January of this year, four IDF soldiers were murdered in a ramming attack by a terrorist from the same neighborhood.
Officers arrested Mattar’s brothers, both parents and another family member as well, transporting all to the police precinct for further investigation by security personnel.
It is not yet clear whether the family was aware of Mattar’s intention to carry out the attack; but obviously, they must have been aware of his association with the Hamas terrorist organization, given the flag found in the home.
Jabel Mukabar is one of a cluster of Jerusalem Arab neighborhoods that have become safe havens for terrorists. Attacks by Arab youths from Jabel Mukabar and some of the surrounding areas are often the result of incitement by agitators who blame “the Zionists” for a variety of societal ills in Arab life.
There is little if any distinction between civilians and soldiers in the minds of the young, another deliberate result of the incessant programming and incitement by terror groups and the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority government. Residents in the Jewish sections of Jerusalem and communities near the Arab neighborhoods become the resulting targets of attacks prompted by the ongoing incitement.
S. Levi contributed content to this report.