Pisgat Ze'ev stabbings

On October 12, 2015, two Palestinian boys, 15-year-old Hassan Khalid Manasra and his cousin 13-year-old Ahmad Manasra, both from Beit Hanina, stabbed two Israeli civilians in Pisgat Ze'ev, an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem. The victims were 20-year-old Yosef Ben-Shalom, a security guard, and Naor Shalev Ben-Ezra, a 13-year-old boy. Hassan was shot dead by a police officer while Ahmad was struck by a car. The attack attracted significant attention among both Israelis and Palestinians because of the young age of the attackers.

A clip from the aftermath of the attack showed Ahmad injured on the road, while people shout at him until the ambulance arrives; the video spread on social media.

Hassan and Ahmed equipped themselves with knives. In Pisgat Ze'ev, they found Yosef Ben-Shalom, a 20-year-old male security guard who they chased after with their knives drawn, and stabbed. The knife had pierced his subclavian artery, causing severe bleeding that field medics struggled to control. Initially presumed dead upon arrival at Mount Scopus, the Hadassah medical team, led by Dr. Yoachim Shiffman, identified signs of life. Dr. Shiffman manually controlled the bleeding by inserting his fingers into the artery for 15 minutes. Vascular surgeon Ina Akopnick, racing against time, performed a crucial operation to close the truncated artery, aided by Professor Achmed Eid, Director of General Surgery at Hadassah Medical Center, who opened the chest cavity for the procedure. His gradual awakening in intensive care marked the beginning of his recovery journey.

Ben-Ezra's recovery was marked by significant celebration, attended by family, friends, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Meir Turgeman, media reporters, and David Dalfon, the first medical responder who played a crucial role in saving Ben-Ezra's life.

The adult victim, Yosef Ben-Shalom, also suffered serious injuries, including damage to the lung and liver. A crowd surrounds him and shouts, "Die, son of a bitch" along other profanities in Hebrew. After about a minute, an ambulance arrives.

Responses Abbas reacted strongly to the attack. On October 15, he gave a televised speech translated to English by The Jerusalem Post in which he lambasted the "Israeli aggression" and called for the "immediate positive interference by the international community before it is too late." He reiterated that the Palestinian side would not accept any changes to the "status quo" for the Temple Mount. He also mentioned "the execution of our children in cold blood as they did with the child Ahmed Manasra and other children from Jerusalem." In an English translation of Abbas' speech released by the PLO Abbas was quoted as saying Israel "shoots" Palestinian children "as they did with the child Ahmed Manasra," replacing the word "executions" with more moderate language.

The speech was heavily criticized by the Israeli side for its inflammatory language and because Ahmed was still alive.

Dr. Asher Salmon, the deputy director of the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem where Ahmed was treated, said that the boy was still alive and was in light-to-moderate condition. Photos of Manasra from the hospital were released to support his statements.

Trial of Ahmad Ahmad was indicted by the Jerusalem District Court on two counts of attempted murder and detained in a closed facility in the Galilee in northern Israel.

On November 8, 2015 a ten-minute long video was leaked to the media showing Israeli interrogators shouting at the visibly distressed Ahmad. Later in 2019, Barghout was convicted and sentenced to 13.5 years in prison for his involvement in several shooting attacks against Israelis in the West Bank, in collaboration with Zakaria Zubeidi.

In May 2016, Ahmad was convicted on two counts of attempted murder, though no blood was found on the knife found in his possession, and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His legal counsel, the Israeli attorney Lea Tsemel, called the conviction "surprising, unbalanced and problematic." She argued that it was Hassan that carried out the stabbings and that neither boy intended to kill anyone, that they "just wanted to scare Jews so they’d stop killing Palestinians."

Naor Ben-Ezra, the young victim, expressed disappointment that Manasra did not receive a life sentence, a sentiment echoed by his father, Shai, who lamented the impact of the attack on his son's adolescence and family life.

In August 2017, the Israeli Supreme Court reduced his sentence to 9 and a half years in prison. The court upheld the compensation Ahmed should pay to the two victims; NIS 100,000 to the 13-year-old boy and NIS 80,000 to the 20-year-old security guard. Israeli human rights group B'Tselem condemned the bill.