Police arrest Palestinian teen with knife in Jerusalem Old City

A teenage boy from of East Jerusalem was prevented from carrying out a stabbing attack in the capital’s Old City, the Israel Police said Sunday.

The suspect, 13 years old, from the Issawiya neighborhood, was found to be carrying a switchblade.

Officers and Border Police on patrol noticed the teenager acting suspiciously in the Old City on Saturday night. They apprehended him and during a search of his possessions discovered the knife.

He was arrested and taken away for questioning. An initial investigation found that he planned to carry out a stabbing, police said.

The suspect was to be brought for a remand hearing on Sunday. The investigation is ongoing.

Jerusalem District Police Commander Doron Turgeman praised officers’ vigilance, saying their quick response foiled an attack.

The incident came a day after a Palestinian man was shot dead as he tried to carry out a stabbing attack at an illegal settlement outpost in the West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces said the man entered the Sde Ephraim Farm outpost by car and tried to stab an Israeli man before he was shot dead by an armed Israeli civilian.

The incidents came amid heightened tensions as Israel has been conducting an ongoing anti-terror offensive in the West Bank, to deal with a series of Palestinian attacks that killed 31 people in 2022.

The IDF’s operation has netted more than 2,500 arrests in near-nightly raids. It also left 171 Palestinians dead in 2022, and another 18 since the beginning of the year, many of them while carrying out attacks or during clashes with security forces, though some were uninvolved civilians.