A disfigured woman whose case has become well known is among the Palestinians released” was the headline of a New York Times story about criminals in Israeli jails being traded for hostages held by Hamas.
A pro-Hamas social media influencer with the moniker “Khalil in Gaza” tweeted (X’d?) that the lady The Times referred to, Israa Jaabees, was “[a] healthy, beautiful woman” when she “entered the prison, [but] she came out injured and burned.”
Only she wasn’t and didn’t. She was injured and burned not in prison but in the happening that landed her there—the explosion that resulted from her detonation of a gas canister in an attempt to kill Israeli soldiers.
That fact, once it was duly reported to The Times, led the Gray Lady to eventually append the following to her report:
“Update: This story has been updated to include information about Israa Jaabees’s conviction.”
Well, better late than never (which is when “Khalil in Gaza” is likely to tell the truth about Mrs. Jaabees; the most he could muster, after his lie had garnered over two million views, was an admission that there have been “conflicting claims” about what transpired).
Welcome to the Falastin Fabrication Factory.
And to the story of Israa Jaabees.
According to the indictment that led to her conviction and imprisonment, the lady (to employ the word loosely) had expressed support and admiration for “martyrs” on Facebook in 2014.
And on October 10, 2015, the then-31-year-old Jericho resident wrote a note stating, among other things, “Woe to you, enemies of All-h… your death is imminent, and I am with the convoy of martyrs for All-h.” That very day, she purchased a gas tank and a lighter.
The next day, she loaded her purchases into her car and, as she drove near a soldiers’ hitchhiking station adjacent to Ma’ale Adumim, was stopped by Israeli policeman Moshe
Chen for traveling in the public transportation lane.
The uniformed officer approached Mrs. Jaabees’ vehicle and requested her identification.
Then, the policeman recounted, she began chanting “All-hu Akbar!”
Noticing a mist in the woman’s car, officer Chen turned to get a fire extinguisher. Mrs.
Jaabees ignited the gas with her lighter, causing an explosion that threw the officer back, burned his face and chest and injured his leg. Mrs. Jaabees also suffered severe burns and both she and her victim were quickly transported to a Yerushalayim hospital.
Mrs, Jaabees confessed to charges of attempted aggravated assault and was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Officer Chen has trouble walking and climbing stairs and still suffers post-traumatic distress.
The explosion cost Mrs. Jaabees eight fingers and some vision in her right eye. It also heavily scarred her face.
The way some in the Arab media reported the story, the engine of Mrs. Jaabees’ car failed, somehow causing a fire that ignited the gas tank, which she was transporting for personal use. Activist Israeli lawyer Lea Tsemel has argued that Mrs. Jaabees was unhappy in her marriage and intended only to kill herself. (If you believe either of those stories, might I interest you in a bargain for the Allenby Bridge?)
In a contemporary twist of the classic definition of chutzpah—the orphan who murdered his parents and sues for his inheritance—Mrs. Jaabees, during her jail stay, petitioned prison authorities to arrange and pay for facial reconstruction surgery. That request was turned down. (Don’t tell the college kids about that genocidal colonist cruelty.)
What may have emboldened the scarred woman to make that bid is that, back in 2008, an imprisoned Palestinian terrorist who had plotted the murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians whom he suspected of cooperating with Israel was operated on by Israeli doctors, who removed a life-threatening tumor in his brain.
Unfortunately, the surgery was a success, and the murderer was one of the more than 1,000 prisoners traded by Israel in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for five years.
That cured patient’s name is Yahya Sinwar, the current leader of Hamas in Gaza, the architect of the savage Shemini Atzeres murder spree.
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