Illustrative: Israeli security forces at the scene of an attempted stabbing attack near Jerusalem's Old City on December 19, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Police on Sunday arrested a Palestinian suspected of attempting to carry out a stabbing attack in Jerusalem near the Old City’s Damascus Gate, as an Israeli bus driver was injured in a West Bank rock-throwing incident amid escalating tensions.
The suspect, a man in his 20s from Anata, just outside East Jerusalem, tried to stab a passerby before fleeing, according to police.
No one was injured in the incident.
A police statement said officers located and arrested the suspect after searching the area, and that they also recovered a knife.
Jerusalem District Police Commander Doron Turgeman visited the scene and said that security forces would ramp up their operations in the area. He also said officers would be instructed to maintain a “high level of operational readiness.”
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“We will continue to act firmly against any threat,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.
A photo distributed by police shows a knife allegedly used in an attempted stabbing attack near Jerusalem’s Old City on December 19, 2021. (Israel Police)
Separately, Palestinians allegedly threw rocks Sunday evening at an Israeli bus as it passed near the West Bank town of Hizma, northeast of Jerusalem.
The driver, 32, was lightly injured in the eyes by glass shrapnel. Paramedics took him to the Hadassah Medical Center in the capital for treatment.
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Sunday’s incidents came amid a recent rise in Palestinian terror attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank, including a pair of deadly shooting attacks and several stabbings in and around the Old City.
There has also been a noted rise in settler violence toward Palestinians.
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