Officer dies after being critically hurt in terror stabbing near Jerusalem’s Old City
Slain Israeli-US cop named as Rose Elisheva Lubin; 16-year-old Palestinian attacker shot dead by other Border Police officers at scene; 2nd officer in moderate condition
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A Border Police officer was stabbed to death and another was injured in a terrorist attack Monday morning near the Herod’s Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City.
The two victims, one of them in critical condition, were taken to Hadassah Mount Scopus hospital where the critically wounded officer died of her wounds. She was named by police as Sgt. Rose Elisheva Lubin, 20, from Kibbutz Sa’ad in southern Israel.
Police said Lubin had moved to Israel from the United States in August 2021, and was drafted to police as a so-called “lone soldier” in March 2022.
The second officer was lightly-moderately hurt in the attack outside the Shalem police station on Salah al-Din Street in East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian assailant was shot dead by other Border Police officers at the scene, police said.
He was identified by police as a 16-year-old resident of East Jerusalem’s Issawiya neighborhood.
Police said another suspect was detained nearby and “his connection to the terrorist and the attack is being investigated,” as officers searched the area to rule out the possibility of additional attackers.
Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai arrived at the scene of the attack for an assessment with the Jerusalem District commander, Doron Turgeman, and other officers.
The attack came at a time of soaring tensions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as Israel fights a fierce war against the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip following its October 7 massacres in southern Israel.
Lubin’s death brought the number of officers killed since October 7 to 59.
Last month, two officers were wounded, including one seriously, in a shooting attack outside the same Jerusalem police station.
A 21-year-old resident of the north Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina approached the police station holding a type of makeshift submachine gun known as “Carlo,” which is commonly manufactured in the West Bank.
The gunman fired a number of shots at police officers standing outside the building and then ran away. As he was trying to escape, officers ran after him and killed him on the spot, police said.
Last week, a police officer was seriously injured in a stabbing attack at a gas station close to the Shivtei Yisrael light rail station near Jerusalem’s Old City.
The attacker attempted to snatch the officer’s weapon, before fleeing the scene, police said. The stabber, identified by police as a 17-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, was shot dead by another officer who arrived in the area.
Also last week, an Israeli man was killed in a shooting attack on a West Bank road, sparking a manhunt for the assailants and revenge attacks by settlers.
Elhanan Klein, 29, was killed as he was returning from army reserve duty to his home in the settlement of Einav in the northern West Bank, the Samaria Regional Council said. Medics found him dead in his car, which crashed and overturned on the side of Route 557 near the Palestinian town of Bayt Lid, northwest of Nablus.
Israeli authorities described the incident as a terror attack and the Israel Defense Forces launched a manhunt for the gunman.
