Police catch knife-wielding Palestinian who planned stabbing attack

Israeli Border Police on Saturday detained a Palestinian who later confessed to planning a terror attack near Jerusalem.

By TPS and World Israel News

A 20-year-old Palestinian man was arrested by Border Police in the community of Har Adar some 15 kilometers west of Jerusalem Saturday morning.

A knife was found near the spot where the man was arrested. He later told security forces that he had planned to carry out a stabbing attack.

In September 2017, two security guards and a Border Police officer were killed in a shooting attack on a checkpoint at the entrance to Har Adar.

The incident on Saturday follows on the heels of a number of fatal Palestinian stabbing attacks in Israeli communities, including the recent murder of activist Ari Fuld.

Just a few months earlier, in July 2018, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed to death 31-year-old Israeli father of two, Yotam Ovadia, in the Adam community in Samaria’s Binyamin region. Two other victims were wounded in that attack, which was ultimately halted by one of the victims, 41-year-old Asaf Ravid, who shot the terrorist twice.

The murderer, Mohammed Tarik Youssef, came from the nearby Palestinian village of Kobar, which was also home to the terrorist who stabbed to death three members of the Salomon family in Neve Tzuf in 2017.

The perpetrators of such crimes, or their families, are eligible under Palestinian law for monthly salaries from the Palestinian Authority (PA). According to PA regulations, the Neve Tzuf terrorist will receive monthly payments equaling $3,120 for life, more than double the the median salary of a Palestinian engineer, which hovers around $1,300 per month.