Palestinian Security Officer Behind Shooting at Checkpoint Near Yerushalayim

Two Israelis were injured in what security officials said was a shooting attack near Yerushalayim, Thursday morning. The attack occurred near the Hizme checkpoint north of the city.

Paramedics treated a 47-year-old Arab-Israeli and a 20-year-old IDF soldier on site before evacuating them to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital for further treatment. The Israeli-Arab is listed in a serious condition.

IDF soldiers are investigating the background of the incident. According to the victim, a passenger in the vehicle was able to shoot the terrorist, killing him.

It was later reported by the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency that the terrorist behind the shooting attack was an officer in the Palestinian security forces. This is a first in the current wave of terror.

He was identified as Mazen Hassan Oraiba of the eastern Yerushalayim neighborhood of Abu Dis.

Meanwhile, one of the most brutal attacks in the country’s history was reclassified Thursday as a terror attack. The victim in the 2012 attack in a Tel Aviv park was “subjected to unprecedented torture and cruelty,” said the court that sentenced Bani Jaaber of Shechem, the perpetrator of the crime, to 30 years in prison.

Jaaber received the sentence after confessing to the crime in a plea deal, an action that was opposed by the victim’s attorneys. After the sentencing, the victim’s attorneys appealed to numerous state agencies to have the crime reclassified, both in order to increase the sentence for Jaaber and to enable the victim to qualify for additional assistance that is available only to victims of terror attacks.