On Monday, vigilant policemen in the Old City of Jerusalem caught a 24-year-old Arab woman who was planning to commit a terror attack, according to Israeli police.

The woman, a Palestinian Authority resident, raised the suspicion of policemen stationed in the city. They checked her bag and found a large knife.

The woman said she was there to stab police officers.

This wasn’t the woman’s first time. In fact, she had been previously caught three times with a knife.

In her previous attempts, she was caught at a Hebron checkpoint where she said she was planning to stab security personnel.

Prof. Yehuda Hiss, who was fired from his job as head of the national Forensic Institute by then Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman (UTJ), submitted his opinion for the defense Wednesday in the military trial of shooting medic Sgt. Elor Azaria, suggesting “the bullet that hit the terrorist’s head was most likely postmortem.”

Azaria was indicted by the IDF Prosecution for manslaughter for shooting a stabbing terrorist who had already been neutralized and was lying on the ground.

Prof. Hiss’ opinion was written based on the autopsy performed by medical examiner Dr. Hadas Gips, who testified before the same military court in June that the terrorist’s initial wounds, before Azaria shot him in the head, “were not immediately life threatening especially with medical care.” She told the court that “if the terrorist had been given medical treatment, he could have possibly been saved.”

But Israel’s Channel 1 TV News reported Wednesday night that Prof. Hiss’ opinion is that “based on the results of the autopsy and considering the conclusions from the opinion of Prof. Dov Shimon, it is reasonable to assume that the death of the deceased was caused by an acute respiratory failure, combined with an air embolism to the heart and brain, following the damage to the right lung by two bullets. The damage from the bullet that hit the head was, most likely, posthumous.”

Dr. Gips told the court that had the terrorist received treatment even as late as half an hour after the event, he could be saved. She said that what appeared like an air embolism — was not.

The contradiction between the two expert opinions could result in changing the indictment, but not necessarily in an acquittal. The defense may also have to modify its version of events, since to date their claim has been that Azaria saw the terrorist moving before shooting him — although this discrepancy could be explained away with an argument of reflex motion, either by the man on the ground, or by the shooter.

Prof. Hiss is not a well liked figure in Israel, and was fired from his prestigious job at the helm of the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for mishandling thousands of body parts, some times for pay. According to Ha’aretz, Hiss continued to work for the Justice Ministry and collect his paycheck, which, back in 2015, ranked among the highest for civil servants in Israel.

IDF forces early Wednesday morning raided and ransacked the Arab radio station al-Sanabel in Dura, near Hebron, detained five employees for interrogation, and closed the station down for three months. The action was taken in response to incitement that was being broadcast by the station. According to the IDF Spokesperson, al-Sanabel regularly broadcast anti-Israeli content, supported attacks on Israeli citizens, congratulated terrorists for carrying out acts of murder, and encouraged Arab participation in riots.

The IDF force left a closure order on the station’s sealed door.

Arab media identified the detainees as station chief Ahmad al-Darawish, and employees Muhammad al-Sus, Nidal Amro, Muntaser Nassar, and Hamed al-Nammura. Their homes were also raided.

An IDF spokesman issued a statement in Arabic saying Israeli army, police, and civil administration authority forces closed al-Sanabel under a military order accusing the radio station of broadcasting programs that incite against Israel.

The trial of IDF medic Elor Azaria, who shot dead an Arab terrorist in Hebron last Purim after the latter had already been felled to the ground, was resumed Sunday morning after a month’s break. The defense plans to introduce four new witnesses, most likely local civilians who were present at the scene at the time of the shooting.

The first defense witness to take the stand Sunday morning was Eliyahu Liebman, Hebron’s Security Officer for the past 22 years, who received a commendation from the IDF chief of staff back in 2002 for his role in protecting Jewish worshipers from Arab attackers during the second Intifada. Liebman said the IDF and the media presented an inaccurate picture of reality at the time of the shooting. He accused them of painting a target around Azaria after the fact. He recalled a phone conversation from a person in former defense minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon’s circle who told Liebman that “Bogie told him even the Hebron Security Officer thinks the shooting was invalid. He asked if this was true, I answered it was a complete lie.”

Liebman testified that he had not been questioned by military police following the incident, and that other security officers had been skipped by investigators. He told the court, “I suspect that in this case we weren’t just accidentally not summoned for questioning, and it looks like it had to do with the comments by then Defense Minister Ya’alon following the shooting incident.”

Ya’alon, as well as IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, openly chastised the defendant well before the investigation of the case had even begun.

Liebman testified that the removal of the terrorist’s body was done in a manner contrary to protocol. “The terrorist was taken away without being checked and contrary to the professional opinion of the sappers. It put in risk anyone who carried him until the moment the sappers checked him and ruled him clear.”

Azaria’s defense team has announced it would present several witnesses the prosecution opted to skip, noting that “the indictment mentions 77 witnesses, out of whom the prosecution chose to hear 22, when it realized that its own witnesses … utterly contradict its version of events.” The defense will endeavor to complete the picture as the prosecution should have done, suggesting it is “convinced once the full picture and not a partial and twisted picture is presented, things will be clarified at the court room.”

The task of the defense is to repair the damage caused by the confrontational testimony given by the defendant Azaria. He was baited by the chief prosecutor and was unable to explain blatant contradictions between different statements he had given regarding the shooting. He introduced a new claim, an accusation that his company commander slapped him after the shooting, an element he had never before mentioned. He also accused his battalion commander of lying but was unable to offer a coherent reason as to why he would do so, other than “fear of the media.”

Still, an unconvincing testimony by the defendant does not necessarily mean the judges would hold it against him should the defense be able to poke holes at the prosecution’s version of events. Much of the debate will circle around whether or not there was a reasonable expectation that the terrorist on the ground, who was severely injured but not fatally so, still posed a lethal danger. In that context, the fact that the terrorist was wearing a heavy coat on a sunny day — a telltale sign of a potential suicide bombing — combined with mismanagement of the potential danger, could advance the defendant’s cause.

A 22-year-old Arab man from Hebron raised the suspicions of Border Police manning a checkpoint near Maarat Hamachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, on Saturday.

The man was found to have been carrying a knife on him.

He told investigators that he had planned to commit a stabbing attack as an act of vengeance for his cousin, who was killed half a year ago – while trying to commit a stabbing terror attack.

An actual example of the cycle of violence.

Overnight a combined operation of the IDF Judea and Samaria Division, Shabak and Judea and Samaria Police thwarted a weapons manufacturing infrastructure and arrested weapons makers and merchants in Bethlehem and in Hebron, the Police Spokesperson’s office reported. It was largest such operation this year.

IDF, Shabak and police forces, as well as Border Gurad units, located and captured seven weapons workshops with 22 lathes. In addition the forces discovered dozens of firearms, including magazines and parts. The forces arrested two suspects believed to be involved in making and selling illegal weapons. One of the two, considered the most prominent illegal weapons merchant in the PA, was taken in for questioning by the Shabak.

The illegal items were confiscated.

Since the beginning of 2016, the IDF, Israel Police and the Shabak have located 29 illegal weapons workshops in Judea and Samaria, with 49 lathes and more than 300 firearms. Security forces have also arrested more than 140 Arabs suspected of involvement in making and selling illegal weapons.

Since the beginning of the year there have been more than 30 terrorist attacks using firearms.

Ha’aretz writer Yotam Berger, who on Monday reported on the new housing construction project planned for Jewish Hebron, followed his story with a tweet addressed to @White-House, in which he noted (in Hebrew), “For your information, the State is planning new construction in the Jewish settlement in Hebron.” Although it’s puzzling why Berger didn’t tweet in English, or ask someone at the paper’s English language website to help him translate, the panicky urgency of the tweet is unmistakable.

Monday’s report was followed Tuesday morning with a leading editorial titled, “Provocation in Hebron,” which warns that “Hebron is a permanent focal point for tension and confrontations between Jews and Palestinians. Any change in the urban structure and any additional Jewish presence in the city would only increase the potential for violence and the Palestinian protest. Those who complain day and night about Palestinian incitement cannot wash their hands of responsibility when they approve a construction project that is unmatched in its capacity to cause rage and hatred.”

The same editorial accuses Israel of “robbing lands” and Prime Minister Netanyahu of lying when he says he wants to negotiate peace because he is creating facts on the ground that would increase the demand for concessions on the PA.

The part about robbing lands is a purely pro-Arab perspective on the acquisition of the land for the new construction. The fact is that Ha’aretz’s own report on Monday cites Hebron spokesman Noam Arnon, who said the lands to be used have been owned by Jews since before 1948. “The area has always been known as belonging to the Jewish community, and if they return to living there I’m sure every justice-loving person would rejoice about it,” Arnon said.

What Ha’aretz and Peace Now, as well as the Arabs, are objecting to is the fact that in a situation where the slated area is comprised of Jewish owned lands and lands that were confiscated by the IDF back in 1983, the Jews will win out. The Jewish owned land will be turned into Jewish housing, while the confiscated land — where the city of Hebron used to maintain a central bus station that has been relocated in 1983 — that land remains confiscated.

So, according to Ha’aretz, the Jews who utilize their legally owned lands are robbers, because the IDF is holding on to lands that were confiscated from the Arab municipality.

A map of Hebron. The yellow area is Arab, where Jews are not allowed to set foot. / Wikipedia commons

The Israeli Supreme Court in 1979 ruled that land that was confiscated by the IDF for military purposes cannot be turned over for Jewish settlement. And so Ha’aretz, the anti-Israel NGOs and, supposedly, some Arabs, are implying that the Jews of Hebron have somehow violated the court ruling, which they never have done.

The decision to permit new housing construction in H2 (the Jewish sliver of Hebron) was made under the Moshe Ya’alon administration at the Defense Ministry, and it has now been confirmed by his successor, Avigdor Liberman. It isn’t clear how many housing units can be pushed into the area, which is about half an acre, including the military-confiscated parts which are verboten. Unless they build a high riser, the common land use for half an acre of suburban housing is between 15 and 25 units. If that many homes for Jews have the power to derail peace negotiations then maybe Israel should think the entire peace process on account of facing unimaginably rigid partners.