Palestinian teen held after trying to enter Jerusalem with knife
Shuafat youth attempted to evade scrutiny at checkpoint; IDF, police shut down firearms workshop in Etzion bloc
Border Police officers arrested a 14-year-old Palestinian boy on Wednesday morning at the entrance to the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem after finding a knife in his possession.
Officers manning the checkpoint stopped the teen after noticing him jumping a turnstile in an attempt to evade their scrutiny as he exited the refugee camp.
A search of his clothes revealed the knife.
The youth told investigators he planned to carry out a terror attack, the Border Police said.
Overnight Tuesday, IDF and police forces uncovered a workshop for fabricating parts of firearms in the village of Sawahra near the Etzion bloc, which lies south of Jerusalem.
Three men, identified as local residents, were arrested in the operation.
Troops found and confiscated an MP-5 rifle, a handgun and large quantities of ammunition, and destroyed the workshop, police said.
“The Israel Police operates in all parts of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], in every place and time, against the phenomenon of the manufacture and possession of firearms, including improvised weapons,” a police statement said. “Severe indictments will be filed against the suspects,” the statement added.
Another seven Palestinian suspects, including at least two members of Hamas, were arrested in overnight raids in the West Bank, the army said.
