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Resources updated between Monday, January 4, 2021 and Sunday, January 10, 2021

January 7, 2021

Protesters in Hong Kong (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

China's Hong Kong crackdown escalates with mass opposition arrests Document

January 5, 2021

Esther Horgan, who was brutally murdered by a Palestinian terrorist (Photo courtesy social media)

Israeli NGO accuses U.N. agency of distorting data on terrorism Article

The cleaver used in the attempted terror attack

A Palestinian man on Tuesday tried to carry out a stabbing attack in the West Bank, amid rising violence in the area, the Israeli military said.

The Israel Defense Forces said the suspect was spotted by a settlement security coordinator as he approached the Gush Etzion junction, south of Bethlehem. The security official and an Israeli soldier ordered the suspect to stop and fired shots into the air, according to the military.

"The suspect threw a knife at the security coordinator, who responded with fire and neutralized the terrorist," an IDF statement said.

No soldiers or civilians were injured.

Images from the scene showed the suspect lying immobilized on the ground, along with a meat cleaver he was apparently carrying.

The Palestinian Authority health ministry identified the suspect as Ahed Abd al-Rahman Qawqas, 25, from the nearby town of Beit Ummar.

The junction, in the southern West Bank, has been the scene of numerous attacks and attempted assaults over the years.

The incident came at a period of heightened tensions in the West Bank.

Last month, an Israeli woman, Esther Horgen, was found dead in a northern West Bank forest where she had gone for a run. Troops arrested the prime suspect in the murder, who was identified by the Shin Bet security service on Monday as a 40-year-old Palestinian man from a nearby village.

The Israeli security services reported 13 incidents of stone-throwing by settlers against Palestinians in the days immediately following Horgen's murder. A16-year-old settler, Ahuvia Sandak, was killed in a car crash during a police chase after allegedly hurling rocks.

Sandak's death ignited days of near-nightly protests in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Demonstrators have thrown stones, assaulted police officers, attacked buses and blocked major thoroughfares. Some have also attacked Arab civilians.

Additionally, an unarmed Palestinian man, Haroun Abu Aram, was left paralyzed from the neck down on Friday after being shot at close range by Israeli forces during an operation to confiscate illegal Palestinian construction equipment in the West Bank's South Hebron Hills.

On Sunday, an Israeli woman was seriously injured by rocks thrown at her car as she drove in the West Bank. The IDF later announced the arrests of several suspects.

Palestinian attempts to carry out stabbing terror attack in West Bank Document

January 4, 2021

The scene of a rock attack in the West Bank

A woman in her 40s was seriously injured near the West Bank settlement of Neve Tzuf on Sunday afternoon after rocks were thrown at her car.

The army said in a statement that "a civilian was injured as a result of stone-throwing near the village of Deir Deir Nidham."

Israel Defense Forces were "in pursuit of the suspects," the statement added.

Hebrew-language media reports said IDF troops were encircling the nearby Palestinian village of Deir Nidham in an attempt to apprehend the suspects.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said medics treated the injured driver, who was conscious, before taking her to Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan for treatment for a head injury.

Reports said two of the woman's children were in the car at the time of the attack but were unharmed.

The Kan public broadcaster named the victim as Rivka Tytell, wife of Jewish terrorist Jack Tytell, who was convicted in 2013 for a string of nationalistically motivated murders and terror attacks spanning a decade.

Jack Tytell is serving two life sentences and an additional 30 years in prison for murdering two Palestinians, two other attempted murders, placing a bomb next to now-deceased far-left academic Zev Sternhell, and other offenses.

Sunday's rock-throwing incident came amid a period of heightened tensions in the West Bank.

Last month, Israeli settler Esther Horgen, was found dead in a northern West Bank forest where she had gone for a run.

The Israeli security services reported 13 incidents of stone-throwing by settlers against Palestinians in the days immediately following Horgen's murder, including an incident in which a 16-year-old, Ahuvia Sandak, was killed in a car crash during a police chase after allegedly hurling rocks.

Sandak's death has ignited days of near-nightly protest in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Demonstrators have thrown stones, attacked buses and blocked major thoroughfares.

Additionally, an unarmed Palestinian man, Haroun Abu Aram, was left paralyzed from the neck down Friday after being shot at close range by Israeli forces during an operation to confiscate illegal Palestinian construction equipment in the West Bank's South Hebron Hills.

Israeli woman seriously injured in West Bank rock attack Document