Assailant tries to stab policemen at Jaffa Gate, is killed

Officers near Old City approach East Jerusalem man after noticing him following Jewish worshipers. He lunges at them with a knife and is shot

A stabbing attack was thwarted in Jerusalem Saturday morning, when an assailant pulled out a knife and assaulted policemen near the Old City’s Jaffa Gate.

Police on patrol near the gate noticed the man behaving in a suspicious manner, as he appeared to be following Jewish worshipers walking nearby.

When the officers approached him and said they wanted to search him, the man pulled out a knife and lunged at them. The officers shot and killed him. The policemen were unharmed.

Officials identified the man as a 26-year-old resident of East Jerusalem.

“The alertness and operational readiness of the policemen, along with their swift and professional response, prevented harm to them and clearly prevented a terrorist attack against innocent civilians,” Jerusalem police chief Moshe Edri said.

Forensic policemen stand next to the body of a Palestinian assailant who was shot dead following an attack on December 26, 2015, near Jerusalem’s Old City (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)

“We are continuing our robust deployment in Jerusalem, to maintain the security of the public and the many visitors to the city.”

Wednesday also saw an attack near the Jaffa Gate, when two Palestinian men stabbed two Israelis there, before security forces opened fire and killed them.

Two Israelis were killed in that attack: Rabbi Reuben Birmajer — one of the stabbing victims — and Ofer Ben Ari, who died after being mistakenly shot by police amid the chaos of the attack. Another stabbing victim was badly wounded.

On Friday a Palestinian driver attempted to crash her car into a group of Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. The woman was shot and pronounced dead at the scene, police said. No troops were injured in the incident near the Palestinian village of Silwad, north of Ramallah.

In a separate incident Friday, a Palestinian man was reportedly killed in clashes with the IDF east of Gaza City along the border with Israel. Palestinian news outlet Al Watan Voice identified the man as 22-year-old Hani Rafiq Wahdan. At least nine others were injured in the clashes, a Gaza Health Ministry spokesman said.

The incidents came after three terror attacks on Thursday, in an ongoing wave of Palestinian attacks since September.