Police thwart Jerusalem stabbing attack by teenage girl

Troops subdue, arrest 15-year-old at entrance to neighborhood of Isawiyah; no one is injured

Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.

Illustrative photo of Israeli Border Police at the entrance to Isawiyah, in East Jerusalem, on November 12, 2014. (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Illustrative photo of Israeli Border Police at the entrance to Isawiyah, in East Jerusalem, on November 12, 2014. (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Security forces on Friday afternoon thwarted a stabbing attack by a teenage girl in East Jerusalem, a spokesperson for Israel Police said.

The incident occurred at the entrance to the neighborhood of Isawiya, the police said.

The would-be attacker was overpowered and arrested at the scene.

The police said that the girl, coming from the direction of Isawiyah, approached a unit of Border Police officers next to a gas station in the French Hill neighborhood, which abuts Isawiyah. She then pulled out a knife and began to slash at the security forces. The troops overpowered the girl and detained her. There were no injuries.

The incident comes hours after a Palestinian woman was arrested in Hebron on Friday morning when she approached Israeli security forces at a checkpoint near the city’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood carrying a knife.

The knife was found when police searched her belongings, and she was taken for questioning by police.

An IDF soldier was wounded in a stabbing attack at the same site, known as Gilbert Junction, on Thursday. That attack caused a furor in Israel after a soldier fired on one of the Palestinian assailants when the latter was apparently neutralized and disarmed, sparking criticism by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

The soldier appeared in Jaffa Military Court on Friday, where it emerged that he is now a suspect in a murder investigation.

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