Two Policemen Injured In Old City Stabbing Attack, Terrorist Neutralized

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Two policemen were wounded in a stabbing attack which occurred in Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday morning. The terrorist, a 19-year-old Arab from the Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur, was shot dead, according to official reports.

The youth approached police officers with a knife and attacked them at around 4:30 A.M. Sunday. The policemen, members of the local David precinct, opened fire on the attacker and he was declared dead at the scene shortly afterwards.

One policeman was injured by the terrorist, while a second officer was hurt in the leg when he was shot by so-called friendly fire as his colleagues opened fire toward the assailant. both policemen were in light to moderate condition.

The assailant was later named as Samer Jamal al-Qawasmi from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur, situated on the Mount of Olives.

The two officers were taken to hospital in good-to-moderate conditions, police said.

“In the coming period, and until after Ramadan, terrorists and extremists will try to instigate violence. Police and Border Police will be alert and ready,” Public Security Minister Omer Bar-lev, who oversees the police, said in response to the attack.

The stabbing comes after two separate stabbing attacks occurred last week in the village of Hizma adjacent to Jerusalem.In the attacks, two Jewish Israeli men in their 40s were separately stabbed in a store in the village under near-identical circumstances. The alleged Palestinian terrorist was later apprehended.