Woman, 18, severely wounded in apparent terror stabbing in north

An 18-year-old woman was stabbed and seriously wounded in the northern city of Afula on Monday in an apparent terror attack, authorities said.

Police arrested her suspected attacker, who had fled the scene, after a brief manhunt. The suspect was identified by police as a Palestinian man in his 20s from the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

“Police shot the suspect in the leg after calling upon him to stop,” a police spokesperson said. “The suspect was arrested with a knife in his possession.”

Police said they were still investigating the motive for the stabbing, but were working under the assumption that it was a terror attack.

“The main line of investigation is that this was a terror attack, however the investigation is continuing in order to rule out other motives,” the police spokesperson said.

Later in the day, Hebrew media reported police were closer to determining the attack was nationalistically motivated.

The Palestinian suspect, reportedly from the West Bank city of Jenin, was in Israel without a permit, police said.

Videos of the suspected terrorist’s arrest were quickly posted to social media by bystanders.

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The victim was identified as Shuva Malka, an 18-year-old resident of Migdal Ha’emek.

She was stabbed shortly before noon on the street and collapsed outside a local coffee shop, police said.

“When we arrived at the scene, it was very chaotic. There was an 18-year-old girl sitting on a chair at the entrance to a store. She was conscious and suffering from multiple stab wounds to the upper body,” one of the medics who treated her said.

She was taken to the nearby HaEmek Medical Center in serious condition, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

Hospital officials said that her condition had stabilized but remained serious.