"The United Nations envoy to the Middle East on Saturday said he was ‘horrified’ by the killing of a Palestinian stabber who security forces said wounded an Israeli police officer in the West Bank.
On Friday afternoon, Ammar Mifleh tried to enter a vehicle of an Israeli couple in the town of Huwara, near Nablus, Border Police said. While trying to break through the locked door, one of the occupants — an off-duty IDF officer — shot and wounded Mifleh with his handgun.
Mifleh then ran at a nearby Border Police officer and stabbed him in the face, lightly injuring him.
Graphic footage posted to social media showed another Border Police officer trying to apprehend Mifleh after the stabbing, as two other Palestinians were trying to pull him free.
The second officer managed to pull Mifleh away from them in a headlock, but he then briefly freed himself from his grasp and appeared to try and grab the officer’s automatic weapon. The officer then allowed the weapon to fall to the ground as he pulled a handgun from a holster and fired four times point-blank, killing Mifleh.
‘Horrified by today’s killing of a Palestinian man, Ammar Mifleh, during a scuffle with an Israeli soldier near Huwara in the o[ccupied] West Bank,’ UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said on Twitter.
‘My heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family. Such incidents must be fully & promptly investigated, & those responsible held accountable,’ he added.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon slammed Wennesland’s statement, calling it a ‘total distortion of reality.’
‘This incident is a terror attack, in which an Israeli policeman was stabbed in his face and the life of another police officer was threatened and consequently he shot his assailant,’ Nahshon said on Twitter.
‘This is NOT a ‘scuffle’-this is a terror attack!’ he added.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid backed the officer who was filmed shooting the stabber dead.
‘Any attempt to distort reality and tell false stories to the world is simply a disgrace,’ Lapid said on Twitter. ‘Our security forces will continue to act determinedly against terror wherever it raises its head.’
He also wished a speedy recovery to another border guard wounded in the incident.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz also said he ‘strongly condemned’ Wennesland’s remarks.
‘I want to praise the police officer who neutralized a terrorist yesterday. I strongly condemn the attempts to present the event in a false and manipulative manner, and the statement of the UN envoy to the Middle East against the [officer], who acted with determination and professionalism,’ Gantz said on Twitter..."