Female soldier severely wounded in West Bank stabbing
Doctors battle to save her life; attacker shot and killed by security forces at the scene, near Adam junction north of Jerusalem
An Israeli soldier was in critical condition Wednesday after she was stabbed by a Palestinian near the Adam junction, near the Hizme checkpoint north of Jerusalem.
The 20-year-old woman sustained a stab wound to her upper body and was undergoing surgery at Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus. Her life was in danger, doctors said.
“When we got to the scene we saw a young woman around 19 years old, conscious, suffering a stab wound to her upper body. We gave her life-saving first aid and evacuated her quickly in very serious condition,” Magen David Adom paramedic Shai Levi said.
The stabber was shot and killed by a Home Front Command soldier at the scene, the IDF said. A suspected accomplice was arrested. Palestinian media identified the man as 22-year-old Muataz Atallah Qassem of East Jerusalem’s Eizariya neighborhood.
Police blocked the area off for traffic, and began searching for explosive devices.
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Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli policeman was mildly injured in an apparent car-ramming attack next to the West Bank settlement of Ofra, north of Jerusalem. The driver crashed into the checkpoint after ignoring police warnings to stop. Security forces opened fire on the vehicle as it approached the barrier, reports said.
The driver was not apprehended and managed to flee the scene to the nearby village of Silwad. Security forces were searching the area for the suspect.
Magen David Adom paramedics administered first-aid treatment to the injured policeman, who did not need to be taken to a hospital.
The car-ramming incident came a day after similar attacks in the southern West Bank. A soldier and a civilian were lightly hurt Tuesday morning when a car rammed into a bus stop in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem.
Later Tuesday, an Israeli man from Kiryat Arba was hit by a truck and killed Tuesday afternoon after he emerged from his vehicle, which had just been hit by Palestinian rock throwers.