Teen terrorist's motive was vengeance for relative
Muawiya Alqam says he committed stabbing in Jerusalem because his cousin was killed while committing an attack in October; uncle suggests attack was not terrorism.
Muawiya Alqam, 14, one of the two young boys who committed the stabbing attack on Jerusalem's light rail, said on Wednesday that he decided to carry out the attack because his cousin had been shot while committing an attack near the Damascus Gate.
Attorney Mazen Ayoub, Muawiya's representative, said in court: "He takes full responsibility for the incident."
The terror attack occurred on Tuesday, when the two boys stabbed a security guard, 25, inflicting light-to-moderate wounds. The younger Alqam boy was shot and wounded while passengers overpowered the other and held him until police arrived.
The stabbers' uncle, Sheikh Abdullah Alqam, claimed the shooting at the boys was an attempt to execute them.
He referenced the case of Asraa Abed, the woman who pretended to be a terrorist in Afula but was later found to be suicidal.
"We have already seen incidents in which it became clear it wasn't a terror attack, like in the case of Abed," said the uncle.
The uncle claimed the family would be surprised if the incident turned out to be a terror attack. "They are two minors," he said. "If they did do it, we knew nothing about their intent to commit terror attacks, if there was indeed such intent.
"They are children and did not speak about a desire to commit a terror attack or about the intifada, but we do intend to check their Facebook accounts to try and understand what they were going through," he added.
