Terror Rampage Returns To Yerushalayim

Terrorism returned to Yerushalayim Monday, with three stabbing attacks that left a 16-year-old boy critically wounded.

In the worst attack, in Pisgat Ze’ev, which abuts Arab neighborhoods in the northern section of the capital, two terrorists stabbed a 20-year-old, seriously wounding him before continuing up the street. They then spotted the 13-year-old riding a bike and stabbed him.

The incident was the third terror attack of the day. Less than an hour earlier, a female terrorist stabbed a Border Policeman near Ammunition Hill, wounding him lightly.

In the morning, a terrorist tried to stab a Border Policeman near the Lion’s Gate in the Old City, but struck his protective vest.

Police immediately opened fire, killing the man, later identified as 18-year-old Mustafa Hatib, of Jabel Mukaber, in the eastern part of Yerushalayim.

The officer who killed the terrorist said, “I told him come here, I want to check you. We got closer to him, and I had my hand on my gun. He came up to us and pulled a knife. After I told him again, he started running toward me and managed to stab one of the officer’s vests. We approached him while firing until he fell.”

 The commander of the district said, “That’s how it’s done. Anyone who attempts to stab a police officer or innocent civilian, that’s the mission. Well done.”

Sunday night saw the Palestinian terror campaign veer northward as four Israelis were wounded in an attack on Route 65 near Kibbutz Gan Shmuel, the location of a large shopping center outside Chadera.

A 20-year-old Israeli Arab from Umm el Fahm ran his car into one person waiting at a bus stop, then left the vehicle and stabbed the others, according to an initial police report. The assailant was apprehended.

MDA paramedics said that a 19-year-old woman was seriously wounded in the attack, as well as three others who suffered light to moderate injuries. The seriously wounded woman was taken to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, while the others were admitted to Hillel Yaffe Hospital in Chadera.

Paramedic Khaled Mora’i and emergency medical technician Yehuda Chaim arrived at the scene to treat the victims. “We saw in a ditch on the side of the road an unconscious 19-year-old woman who had suffered a multi-systemic injury,” Mora’i said. “We gave her life-saving medical treatment that included CPR, treated her wounds, and quickly got her to the hospital.”

It was part of a nearly two week nationwide rampage which has so far killed four Israelis and wounded numerous others.

Earlier Sunday, in an attempted suicide bombing, a woman detonated a propane gas tank and lightly wounded a police officer near the A-Zaim checkpoint on the road between Maale Adumim and Yerushalayim.

The female terrorist had several such tanks in her trunk. B’chasdei Hashem, she didn’t make it into Yerushalayim with her deadly load.

A police officer, Moshe Chen, 45, suffered burns to his upper body, but b’chasdei Shamayim, was evacuated to the hospital with light injuries.

The terrorist, who was seriously wounded, was identified by police as a 31-year-old resident of eastern Yerushalayim.

Chen gave his account of the attack:

“I am on the road in the direction of the A-Zaim junction from the Adumim junction. The woman drove alone in the public transportation lane. I saw her acting suspiciously. She yelled ‘All-hu akbar’ [G-d is great’], seemed like she has set off a device. I am lightly wounded, the terrorist is on the ground, the car is burnt, is going to burn, someone there put out the fire with a fire extinguisher.

“I don’t know if I am lightly wounded, I am in shock, I have suffered some burns,” Chen continued. “The device went off, she detonated the device.

“The explosion occurred right away, and I asked people in the area to stay away because there was a terrorist. I saw people coming toward me to offer help.”

Chen said he told armed bystanders to hold their fire and not to shoot the terrorist.

“Some of them had weapons and I told them not to shoot at the woman, who at this point was … wounded and who did not pose a danger. I called for more police and security forces to come to the scene.”

Over Friday and Shabbos, Arab terrorists wounded 10 civilians and four police officers in Yerushalayim and Yehudah and Shomron in eight separate attacks. Police shot and killed two of the attackers in the capital.

Another Arab man, 25, who was wounded after he shot at border policemen during a riot on Friday in the Shuafat refugee camp in northeastern Yerushalayim, died the next day.

In the first incident on Shabbos, shortly before 11 a.m., an Arab teenager stabbed two mispallelim who were making their way back from davening at the Kosel. Both men, in their 60s, were attacked about 150 yards from Damascus Gate, leaving them moderately and lightly wounded, respectively, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The teenager then charged Border Police officers, who shot him dead.

The shooting touched off a riot in the Old City. A mob rushed police, who used nonlethal means, including stun grenades and rubber bullets, to disperse them.

In the second attack in the capital, at approximately 3 p.m., a 19-year-old Palestinian from Shuafat stabbed two officers from the police’s Special Patrol Unit near Damascus Gate. Police opened fire and killed him.

At Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Dr. Ofer Merin reviewed the status of several victims in its care:

“Three people are currently being hospitalized in the intensive care unit,” Dr. Merin said. “The person in the most critical condition is the police officer who arrived yesterday with a deep wound to his chest and damaged blood vessels.

“He arrived in critical condition,” Dr. Merin continued, “and was in need of blood. His condition has stabilized, but unfortunately he is still in mortal danger. His condition is very serious, and we fear he may succumb to his wounds.

“Also in intensive care are two people injured in two separate stabbings on Thursday,” Dr. Merin noted.

This article appeared in print on page 16 of the October 14th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.