JERUSALEM (AA) – At least three Palestinians and an Israeli were killed in separate incidents on Monday, both the Palestinian and Israeli authorities have said.

On Monday morning, a Palestinian girl was shot dead — and another seriously injured — by Israeli security forces, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

According to Israeli police and government spokesmen, the two girls — cousins aged 16 and 14 — used scissors to try to stab passersby near a market in West Jerusalem, injuring an Israeli and an elderly Palestinian man.

Security camera footage published by Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post apparently showed the girls trying to stab passersby before being shot by security forces.

“Video of attacks in Jerusalem this morning,” tweeted Amnesty International researcher Jacob Burns. “Appears to show Israeli shooting girls after they are already injured.”

He added: “I am not denying that there was intent to stab. But absolutely disgusting if as it appears they were shot again while lying wounded.”

In a similar incident, an Israeli was killed and another wounded in a knife attack that occurred later the same day at a gas station north of Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli military.

The alleged Palestinian perpetrator was killed by Israeli security forces, as was another Palestinian who allegedly tried to stab Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus.

– ‘Distorting facts’

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, for its part, issued a statement on Monday accusing Israeli forces of fabricating stories about knife attacks and “planting” knives next to slain Palestinians.

“Israel has become expert in distorting the facts to divert attention away from its crimes by accusing the victims of those crimes of carrying knives or by planting knives next to their bodies,” Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki asserted.

Since the beginning of October, at least 96 Palestinians have been killed — either after alleged knife attacks on Israelis or during clashes with Israeli security forces, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The Magen David Adom, Israel’s paramedic agency, says that 21 Israelis have been killed within the same period — a figure that also includes an Eritrean asylum seeker killed by a mob who misidentified him as an attacker.

Author: Kaamil Ahmed