Arab terrorist with knife (file)
Arab terrorist with knife (file)Flash 90

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Thursday that a young Palestinian Arab shot dead at a checkpoint in Hevron two weeks ago had in fact attempted to attack Israeli soldiers with a knife. 

The incident sparked an international uproar after Palestinian Arab eyewitnesses at the Hashoter checkpoint in Hevron claimed Hadeel al-Hashlamon, 18, was shot for no reason.

Outrage was also fueled by photographs disseminated by the Palestinian activist group "Youth Against Settlements," which portray al-Hashlamon as standing far away from IDF forces with no knife in hand, while the soldiers' weapons are drawn. 

The IDF's investigation, however, found that al-Hashlamon had indeed interacted with soldiers, alerting a metal detector as she passed through the checkpoint.

When soldiers then told her to lift up her djellaba, a long robe, they identified a knife. Soldiers asked her to move back and throw the knife on the ground, but al-Hashlamon refused.  

In response, an officer on the scene shot four times at the ground as a warning, to no avail. As the officer prepared to shoot al-Hashlamon in the leg, she attacked him with the knife. The officer and another soldier shot back in defense, fatally wounding the terrorist. 

Meanwhile, an IDF investigation into the death of Abdel Rahman Abdullah, the 12-year-old killed during clashes between IDF forces and Arab rioters in Bethlehem on Monday, found on Tuesday that the child had been shot accidentally. 

According the investigation, a soldier aimed at a rioter throwing rocks and firebombs and security forces, but missed and hit the chest of Rahman Abdullah, who was standing right next to the terrorist.