Two stabbed in terror attack at West Bank supermarket

A Palestinian teen stabbed two people and was shot by an off-duty security guard at a West Bank supermarket Wednesday afternoon in what Israeli police said was an apparent terror attack.

The assault took place at a Rami Levy supermarket in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone, east of Jerusalem near the settlement of Maaleh Adumim at about 4:30 p.m.

The two victims, men in their fifties, were lightly to moderately injured. One was wounded in the head, and another in the hand. They were both fully conscious and evacuated to Jerusalem for treatment.

One of the injured was a paramedic who fought with the attacker, according to an eyewitness.

The assailant was identified as a 16-year-old from the West Bank town Al-Azariya on the outskirts of Jerusalem, who arrived at the supermarket with two accomplices from his hometown.

Paramedics bring victims injured in a stabbing attack to the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem on December 03, 2014. (photo credit: Noam Revkin Fenton/FLASH90)

The security guard who shot the 16-year-old is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security detail, and happened to be in the store buying groceries when the attack unfolded.

Security camera footage of a man pointing a weapon at an assailant at a supermarket in Mishor Adumim on December 3, 2014. (Screen capture: Channel 2)

The two Palestinians who accompanied the assailant to the store were arrested on the scene.

One of the store’s employees was also being questioned by police, but was later released.

Rami Levy, who owns the eponymous supermarket chain, said that the attacker grabbed a knife from the store and began stabbing people near a checkout counter.

He was shot in the leg by the off-duty guard and was transported to a hospital.

Netanyahu spoke with the bodyguard who shot the terrorist, telling him, “You prevented a major attack.”

Two bystanders were treated for shock as well.

Police said they were treating the incident as a terror attack.

A picture reportedly from the scene distributed on Twitter appeared to show a man on the ground next to a checkout counter.

https://twitter.com/GalPaNews/status/540152511945265152

The attack came two days after a man was stabbed by a Palestinian assailant at a bus stop at Gush Etzion junction, in the southern West Bank. The female attacker was shot by troops in the area. Coincidentally, that attack also took place near another Rami Levy supermarket.

The woman who stabbed and lightly injured an Israeli man at the West Bank Gush Etzion junction, south of Jerusalem, seen lying on the ground after being shot by Israeli security forces on December 01, 2014. (Photo credit: Gershon Elinson/FLASH90)

The discount supermarket chain is popular with both Israeli and Palestinian shoppers.

The store reopened hours after the attack, and customers returned to shop.

“We will not let this affect us or change our routine. We will prove to them that they will not defeat us,” Levy said.

Maaleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel stressed that although there would be inevitable demands for Palestinians to be banned from the industrial zone, he was committed to ensuring that they continue to work at Mishor Adumim and make a decent living.

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The West Bank and Jerusalem have been roiled by a sharp increase in violent incidents over the last two months amid swirling tensions, many of them carried out by so-called “lone wolf terrorists.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Mishor Adumim attack.