Knives found on 2 Palestinian women trying to enter Jerusalem

Residents of West Bank town of Abu Dis confess to planning stabbing attack, police say

By Judah Ari Gross and Adiv Sterman 14 March 2016, 7:30 pm

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Knives found on two Palestinian women at the Zeitim checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem, March 14, 2016. (Israel Police)

Border Police officers and Military Police troops discovered several knives in the personal belongings of two Palestinian women during a routine search at a checkpoint near Jerusalem Monday.

The two Palestinians, aged 28 and 24, from the West Bank town of Abu Dis, just outside the capital, were stopped at the Zeitim checkpoint while trying to reach Jerusalem, police said.

The two confessed to interrogators at a nearby facility that they had planned to carry out an attack, a police spokesperson said.

A police commander credited the “alertness and determination” of the troops in keeping the pair from entering Jerusalem without any injuries.

Earlier Monday, four Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded in twin shooting and car-ramming attacks outside the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron.

In all, 29 Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in Palestinian terrorism and violence since October of last year. Some 190 Palestinians have been killed, around two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israel Defense Forces.