Police officer stabbed in Old City of Jerusalem, assailant shot dead
Attacker from East Jerusalem charged at cop near Temple Mount’s Chain Gate and stabbed him in the back, moderately wounding him, police and medics say
A 25-year-old police officer was moderately wounded Friday after being stabbed in Jerusalem’s Old City, police and medics said, adding that other officers in the area shot the assailant and killed him.
The wounded officer was taken to the hospital, still conscious, medics said. Police said they had sealed off the site of the attack, at the Chain Gate entrance to the Temple Mount, and sent reinforcements to the scene.
According to police, the stabber charged the officer, stabbing him in the back. The stabber was then shot and wounded by another policeman and a Border Police officer and subsequently declared dead on the scene, police said.
The stabber was identified by security officials as a resident of East Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina neighborhood. Footage from the scene showed the alleged attacker lying on the ground with blood under his body.
WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, said that after the attack, police closed off the Chain Gate, turned away worshipers, launched a drone over Al-Aqsa Mosque, and set up checkpoints in several neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.
The Chain Gate is on the western side of the Temple Mount complex, which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site. It has in recent years been the site of several attacks against Israeli civilians and security forces.
In 2021, a terrorist opened fire near the gate, killing one person and wounding four others. Hamas later claimed responsibility for the attack, identifying the perpetrator as a member of the terror group’s branch in the Shuafat refugee camp located near the eponymous East Jerusalem neighborhood.
A 14-year-old from the Shuafat camp was arrested in early 2023 for stabbing an Israeli teenager near the Chain Gate, lightly wounding him.
The Times of Israel Community.