‘May God Grant Him Long Life’: Mother of an Arab Teen Stabbing Suspect Expresses Profound Gratitude to the Armed Guard Who Held His Fire

The mother of a 13-year-old Israeli-Arab girl this weekend expressed immense gratitude and offered a blessing to an Israeli security guard for not shooting her daughter after the girl stabbed him on Thursday.

“May God grant him long life. I apologize to him,” the mother said. “I’m sorry: to him, and to the mayor and to all the people of Israel. … May God grant all the people of Israel peace.”

Israel’s Channel 2 News interviewed the 8th grader's mother, withholding her name, and the Times of Israel posted translated excerpts.

According to Israeli police, the 13-year-old along with another girl of the same age stabbed the security guard in the hand and leg, injuring him lightly, after the guard asked them to identify themselves at the entrance to the central bus station in Ramle, a mixed Arab-Jewish town in central Israel.

Both girls were arrested at the scene after a soldier and an armed civilian subdued them without using their weapons, the Times of Israel reported. In many previous stabbing attacks during the recent 5-month wave of nearly daily Palestinian violence, the assailants have been either stopped or killed by security forces or armed civilians at the scene.

The mother was well aware of the alternate fate her daughter may have suffered, given that the teens pulled these weapons on the guard.

Knives used by 13 year old female terrorists at Ramla bus station. Heighten security continues in area after attack. pic.twitter.com/ThvHjEBDWe

— Micky Rosenfeld (@MickyRosenfeld) February 4, 2016

“I can’t believe it, honestly,” said the stunned mother, who reportedly works for the Ramle municipality. Channel 2 reported that she is raising six children on her own after her husband allegedly moved to Gaza.

The girls told police they were out to get “revenge for the situation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” and for Israel’s “killing of Palestinians,” the Times of Israel reported.

But the mother said that her daughter told her a few weeks ago “that she wanted to die” because of the family’s impoverished situation.

“I told her, ‘Don’t be depressed. Don’t take it to heart so,'” the mother told Channel 2.

She said that she raised her children to accept all Israelis as a “family” and that “there is no difference between Jews and Arabs.”