Israeli security forces arrested the teenage daughter of the eastern Jerusalem gunman who killed two Israelis in a shooting spree.
The 14-year-old girl was held and questioned with her mother for more than an hour Monday morning before being taken into custody, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.
Prior to the arrest, a video of the teen, Eiman, praising her father, Misbah Abu Sbeih, 39, of the Silwan neighborhood, went viral on Facebook.
“We deem my father as martyr,” Eiman said in the video, according to Maan. “We hope he will plead for us before God on judgment day. … I am proud of what my father did.
“We’re very happy and proud of our father,” she also said. “My father is a great man. Our relationship, as father and daughter, was excellent.”
Abu Sbeih shot and killed at least one person at the Ammunition Hill light rail station in northern Jerusalem, then continued shooting as police pursued him on Sunday morning. Officers ultimately shot and killed the assailant, who had been expected to report to an Israeli prison Sunday at the time of the attack to serve a four-month sentence for assaulting a police officer in 2013.
He reportedly had been known to Israel Police as a suspected terrorist and member of Hamas for several years. Abu Sbeih previously spent a year in jail for incitement in Facebook posts.
The Hamas terror organization in Gaza claimed Abu Sbeih as one of its operatives and praised his “operation.” He also was a member of the Morabitun, a group of Muslim extremists who go to the Temple Mount to harass and threaten Jewish visitors.
Photos showed Hamas supporters handing out candy and baklava to celebrate Abu Sbeih’s “martyrdom.” Candy in his honor also was handed out in eastern Jerusalem. The Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced a day of mourning in his memory.
An Israeli soldier was injured early Monday morning when a Palestinian resident of eastern Jerusalem threw an explosive device at troops measuring the Abu Sbeih family home located in the al-Ram neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem for demolition. Crowds had gathered outside the home to celebrate his act, and 31 people were arrested for their celebrations. The homes of Palestinian terrorists are frequently demolished as punishment for terror acts.
