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| Forensic police at crime scene (inset: Nathan Graff) from The Telegraph |
As of this writing, the attacker has not been caught. He or she was wearing a face mask and there are conflicting reports of a "blonde blue-eyed man" and an "Arab woman". One source reports a getaway car driven by two others.
I'm reprinting this particular article because it also includes the underreported story of an Israeli raid on a West Bank hospital to capture a Palestinian stabber, which occurred Wednesday. It perhaps was included to add "balance" but it is interesting nevertheless.
Note the reference to a report from the Pope's only news source, La Repubblica. One wonders whether the story made it into Bergoglio's daily ten-minute skim.
Somewhat contra to a source quoted in this article, Milan has had its share of anti-semitic and anti-Israeli demonstrations and incidents, though not on the scale of some others Western European cities.
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| Bloodied Israeli flag at Milan Expo, six weeks ago |
Google "Milan Jewish" under "news" to find the latest on the Milan stabbing.
From the Daily Mail:
Knife attacks on Jews spread to Italy as man is stabbed seven times in the back and face in Milan’s Jewish neighbourhood
- Israeli man was repeatedly stabbed in the Jewish neighbourhood of Milan
- Victim has been named as ultra-Orthodox Jewish man Nathan Graff, 40
- Anti-terrorism prosecutors are investigating whether it is a hate crime
- Jewish community is afraid it is 'attempt to mimic the attacks in Israel'
An Israeli man was repeatedly stabbed in the back and face in a Jewish neighbourhood in Milan last night.
The 40-year-old victim, named as ultra-Orthodox Jewish man Nathan Graff, was stabbed outside a kosher pizzeria.
The attacker has not yet been caught and his motives are not known, but a judicial source said anti-terrorism prosecutors were investigating whether it was a hate crime.
Police spokeswoman Magica Palmisano said the victim was attacked from behind and suffered three wounds to the back, three to the face and one to the arm.
The victim sustained non life threatening injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment.
The victim holds Israeli citizenship and members of the Jewish community in Milan said he was wearing a kippa, or skullcap, at the time of the attack.
Witnesses heard the attacker shout 'I'll kill you' twice in Italian,' La Repubblica reported.
The attack took place opposite a Jewish school in San Gimignano.
'Let us hope this was an isolated incident,' Milo Hasbani, co-president of the Jewish community in Milan, told reporters after meeting city officials to discuss the stabbing.
'We have never had problems in Milan. We are well integrated into the city and have no fear... We don't think this was a personal affair, there is nothing to suggest that.'
However a member of the local Jewish community told La Repubblica: 'We are afraid that this is an attempt to mimic the attacks in Israel.'
Police said they were looking at CCTV footage in the area to try to identify the attacker.
Meanwhile, undercover Israeli agents posing as a pregnant woman and her family members infiltrated a Palestinian hospital and gunned down the relative of a suspect being treated in its surgical unit in Hebron, West Bank.
The undercover raid was carried out after more than 20 officers posing as locals entered the hospital overnight into yesterday morning.
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| Israeli commandos storm West Bank hospital to capture sheltered stabber |
Azzam Shalaldeh, wanted for an alleged attack on an Israeli last month, was arrested in the raid, while his cousin, 27-year-old Abdallah, was shot and killed as he emerged from a bathroom.
The Israeli military said forces entered the hospital to arrest Azzam Shalaldeh, who they say stabbed an Israeli last month.
During the arrest, a man at the hospital attacked the troops, who responded by shooting him, the military said.
The raid comes as a nearly two month-long outburst of Israeli-Palestinian violence - in which 12 Israelis and 78 Palestinians have been killed - shows no signs of abating.
Hebron, the largest West Bank city, has been a particular flashpoint in the unrest. Several hundred Jewish settlers live in fortified enclaves in the city, amid tens of thousands of Palestinians.
