Israeli and Palestinian hurt by hammer-wielding attacker in Modiin

Police say assailant, a 39-year-old West Bank resident, had ‘nationalistic’ motive for attack at construction site

An Israeli Jew and a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem were wounded when a coworker at a construction site attacked them in the central Israeli city of Modiin Tuesday afternoon.

The attacker, identified as a Palestinian man, beat the two with a hammer in two separate attacks, moderately to seriously injuring them, according to police and rescue officials.

After interrogating the suspect, police said the attack was nationalistically motivated.

One of the injured was a 28-year-old Palestinian resident of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya. The other victim was identified as a 50-year-old Jewish man. Both were evacuated to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv, with injuries to their upper body, according to medics.

The Jewish man was the attacker’s boss at a construction site where all three worked.

The 39-year-old Palestinian assailant escaped the scene of the first attack and beat the second victim before being tackled by other workers at the site, police said.

The attacker, a resident of Beit Sira, a Palestinian village just across the Green Line from Modiin, has a work permit that allows him to work in Israel, according to the Ynet news site.