Israel arrests mother of Palestinian attacker over remarks

Jerusalem: Israeli forces arrested the mother of a slain Palestinian assailant early on Wednesday after she praised her son`s deadly east Jerusalem attack, the army and police said.

Two youths from the village of Deir Abu Mashal in the occupied West Bank had on Friday opened fire on a group of officers near the Old City, while a third fatally stabbed a border policewoman a short distance away.

All three assailants were shot dead by forces at the scene.

The Israeli army subsequently sealed off the village, near Ramallah, confiscating vehicles and making a number of arrests. 

Early on Wednesday, troops and police arrested the mother of one of the assailants "due to her recent calls over the weekend to commit additional attacks against Jews and due to her violent hate speech," a military spokeswoman told AFP.

The woman, Zaynab Ankush, had on Sunday given a television interview to Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

"He chose to die a martyr but I didn`t know about it," she said. "I`m proud and wish that he would have killed 20, 50, 100 of them."

Police said she was arrested on suspicion of supporting a terror organisation and conspiring to commit a crime.

Security forces also arrested a Palestinian from the Issawiya neighbourhood of annexed east Jerusalem on suspicion of "transporting the terrorists to the site of the attack" and knowing their intent while not acting to prevent the attack, police said.

A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of 273 Palestinians, 42 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP tally.

Israeli authorities say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.