Police arrest East Jerusalem youth for Thursday stabbing

Jerusalem police on Friday arrested a 15-year-old East Jerusalem resident on suspicion of stabbing a yeshiva student near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City Thursday evening.

The youth was apprehended in the Old City, and was brought in for questioning.

The victim, 21, was stabbed in the back with a screwdriver by an assailant described as an “Arab,” according to an initial Channel 2 report.

He was taken to the hospital in moderate condition, according to a Magen David Adom Twitter post.

The stabber fled the scene after the assault. Police suspect nationalistic motives for the attack.

In mid-December 2014, two Border Police officers were lightly injured in a stabbing attack at Lions Gate in the Old City. The officers were stabbed by East Jerusalem resident Mohammed al-Ajlouni, who was caught a week later.

An almost identical stabbing attack took place in November, when an Arab man stabbed an ultra-Orthodox man with a screwdriver near Jerusalem’s Old City.

[mappress mapid=”5002″]

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.