Palestinian man caught with knife near President’s Residence

An East Jerusalem man was apprehended Friday night wielding a large knife as he was walking near the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, in what police suspect may been part of a plan to carry out a terror attack.

The man, an 18-year-old resident of the capital’s eastern neighborhood of Issawiya, was being questioned by police.

The unnamed suspect aroused the suspicion of a security guard at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, the official home of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, and called the police, Israel Radio reported. The knife was concealed on his person.

On Wednesday morning, a Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Tulkarem stabbed 12 people on a bus in Tel Aviv during the morning commute before trying to flee on foot. Prison Service guards who happened to be in a vehicle behind the bus chased the terrorist, shot and handcuffed him until police arrived.

Four people sustained serious injuries including Dan bus driver Herzl Biton, who confronted the Palestinian stabber. He was later said to be in stable condition and awake, although he was still hooked up to life support.

Victims of the attack said Biton’s resourcefulness had helped them flee the bus, where attacker Hamza Matrouk, 23, stabbed over a dozen people. The Palestinian terrorist had entered Israel illegally.

Matrouk said he was motivated to carry out the terror attack by the Israel-Hamas war this summer, and recent tensions surrounding the Temple Mount. He also said he had seen and been influenced by material promising paradise to “martyrs” who kill Jews, investigators who questioned him said.