Police stop Palestinian said planning to stab bus driver

Police arrested a Palestinian teen in the West Bank on Wednesday night and said he admitted he was headed to Jerusalem to carry out a stabbing attack on a bus driver.

The suspect, a 17-year-old resident of Ramallah, was stopped near the Dolev settlement and was found to be carrying a knife and a screwdriver in his bag, police said.

During questioning he said that he planned to hitchhike to Jerusalem and then stab a bus driver in the capital. The suspect was transferred to the Shin Bet security service for further questioning.

The arrest came following a mostly calm day amid a wave of unrest in the West Bank and several Arab towns in Israel, as tensions have risen over the police shooting of an Arab man and a dispute over Jewish access to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

In a separate incident overnight Wednesday, Border Police officers arrested a Palestinian man in his 20s who was carrying a combat knife near the entrance to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, according to police.

Police noticed that the man was acting suspiciously and told him to stop at gunpoint. They then noticed he was carrying a knife and arrested him, police said.

The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. (photo credit: Abir Sultan/Flash 90)

On Monday Palestinians carried out two deadly knife attacks, one in Tel Aviv and one outside the Alon Shvut settlement in Gush Etzion.

IDF soldier Almog Shiloni, 20, was stabbed multiple times at a Tel Aviv train stop. He succumbed to his wounds later in the evening. His assailant was arrested by police.

Later in the day, Dalia Lemkus, 26, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian who first drove a car into the bus stop where she was waiting outside Alon Shvut and then attacked her with a knife. Her attacker was shot by a security guard at the gate to the settlement.

Two other people were injured in the attack.