Two Terrorist Stabbing Attacks Foiled

YERUSHALAYIM
Israeli policemen stand next to blood stains at the scene where three Palestinians, who were shot dead by Israeli police after carrying out what Israeli police spokesman said was a shooting and stabbing attack outside Damascus gate to Jerusalem's old city February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Israeli policemen at the scene of a Palestinian attack outside Damascus Gate, Feb. 3. (Reuters/Ammar Awad)

Security forces foiled two terror attacks in Yerushalayim and Gush Etzion Tuesday morning within a short time of each other, b’chasdei Hashem. In each instance, the attacker was a teenage Arab, and in both cases quick thinking by security forces prevented any Israelis from getting hurt.

In one incident near the entrance to the town of Carmei Tzur in Gush Etzion, a resident noticed a teenage Palestinian girl moving stealthily towards the security checkpoint at the entrance. The resident immediately alerted local security officers, who cornered the individual. The girl then threw down a knife she had been carrying and began running. Officers tackled her and took the 13-year-old into custody.

Carmei Tzur was the scene Friday night of an arson incident, when Arabs set fire to a shul that was established last year in memory of the three teens murdered by Hamas – Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrach, Hy”d – that was an impetus for Operation Protective Edge. The building sustained heavy damage, and many sefarim and siddurim – and a sefer Torah – were burned in the fire. Congregants said that the Arabs had taken the sefarim and placed them in a pile and set fire to them. Residents noted that Arabs have set fires to the shul in the past. IDF troops began a search for the culprits, with the search centering on the village of Halhoul. No arrests have been made yet in the case.

A short time later, a border police officer noticed a female Palestinian teen acting in a suspicious manner near the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Yerushalayim. Officers asked to search her belongings, but when she opened her bag she pulled out a knife and tried to stab the officers. The officers were able to overpower the 16-year-old. She was arrested and taken for questioning.

In a separate incident, police dismantled Monday night a bomb that had been placed next to the vehicle of a factory manager in the Emek Chefer Industrial Zone, near Hadera. Police have arrested two Arabs from the town of Jisr a-Zarka, south of Haifa, in the incident.

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