Lions’ Gate stabber named as East Jerusalem teen

A teenager from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber was named as the attacker who tried to stab a police officer and was shot to death in the capital’s Old City Monday.

Police said Mustafa Khatieb, 17, tried to knife a Border Police officer near Jerusalem’s Lions’ Gate before he was shot and killed Monday morning.

A number of attackers in the last two weeks’ spate of stabbings have been in their late teens and early 20s, but Khatieb would appear to be only the second minor involved in such an incident.

On Saturday, Ishak Badran, 16, also from East Jerusalem, stabbed two people near the Old City’s Damascus Gate.

Police said Khatieb was stopped by police in the Old City when he aroused their suspicion by walking with his hands in his pockets.

He then pulled out a knife and tried to stab one, with police quickly shooting and killing him.

The officer, who was wearing a protective vest, was not injured.

“The alertness and operational readiness of the police aroused suspicions of a terrorist and the quick response resulted in his speedy neutralization and prevented an attack against the innocent,” Jerusalem police chief Moshe Edri said after the attack.

Police have bolstered the presence around the Lions’ Gate entrance to Jerusalem and other areas around the Old City in an effort to clamp down on a spate of terror attacks, which have become a daily occurrence over the last week.

“The results of the large operational deployment have proved themselves time after time,” Edri added.