Terror at Tachanah Mercazit

A Palestinian terrorist stabbed a woman at the Yerushalayim Central Bus Station on Wednesday evening, bringing to an end a brief but uneasy quiet that had prevailed for most of the day.

The woman, about 65, was described as lightly to moderately wounded and taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center by Magen David Adom paramedics.

The terrorist stabbed the woman as she was boarding an Egged bus on Yaffo Street near the central bus station. The driver, thinking quickly, allowed the woman to get on the bus, then shut the door before the terrorist could get on.

The terrorist then fled, but was spotted by a special forces police officer who saw him with the knife, shot and neutralized him. He was identified as Ahmad Shaaban, 23, a resident of eastern Yerushalayim’s Ras al-Amud neighborhood who had been imprisoned between 2012 and 2015 for terrorist activities.

The station was evacuated and searched by police.

Paramedic Emanuel Stern said that the victim was conscious throughout and able to communicate in the ambulance en route to the hospital.

MDA paramedics also treated a number of other people on the scene suffering from shock.

A few hours before, police thwarted an attempted stabbing attack at Damascus Gate in the Old City.

According to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, at approximately 4:30 p.m., Border Police in the area noticed a suspicious-looking Arab man wearing camouflaged clothing, sitting by the gate, which fronts eastern Yerushalayim.

When police approached and asked to search the man for a weapon, he pulled a knife from his pocket and charged the officers.

“Police reacted immediately and fired at him,” Rosenfeld said, adding that the unidentified man died minutes later.

The area of the attack was cordoned off.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the October 15th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.