Cop stabbed in apparent Netanya terror attack

A police officer was stabbed and lightly wounded by a Palestinian man in the coastal city of Netanya on Tuesday, in what police said was probably a terror attack.

The officer sustained a stab wound to the neck, but managed to pull out his gun and shoot the attacker, police said.

The assailant was moderately wounded, according to the Magen David Adom first-aid service.

A female pedestrian was lightly injured by shrapnel from the gunfire. She received treatment at the scene and was taken to the hospital, police said.

Police identified the attacker as a 44-year-old Palestinian man from the city of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, and said that initial findings pointed at a “probable” terror motive behind the attack.

According to medics, the wounded officer is 26 years old. He was fully conscious after the attack.

Both men and the female pedestrian were taken to Netanya’s Laniado Hospital for treatment.

Police across the country are on high alert during an official visit to Israel by US President Donald Trump. Some 11,000 police and security forces are taking part in the operation to secure Trump’s visit. On Tuesday, he traveled to Bethlehem before returning to Jerusalem for a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and the Israel Museum.

On Monday, a Palestinian teenager was shot dead by border guards as he attacked them near the Qalandiya crossing in the central West Bank, police said.