Stabbing attack at Jerusalem light rail thwarted

According to the police, one suspect was shot by a light rail security guard.

By JNS

An attempted stabbing attack was thwarted at the Ammunition Hill light rail station in northeastern Jerusalem, police said on Sunday evening.

The lone terrorist attacked a light rail security guard, who shot her in the leg, the police added. The assailant was the only casualty.

“The female suspect was neutralized on the spot by the light rail security guard and is currently in light condition,” the statement read.

Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai arrived at the scene, which is located across the road from the National Police Headquarters.

The security guard who foiled the attack told Shabtai that the Arab woman acted suspiciously.

“I asked her if she needed any help, and she put her hand in her bag and pulled out a knife,” he explained. “I stepped back, cocked my gun and fired two shots in the air, and told her to drop the knife. She didn’t drop it so I fired once at her knee.”

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his government’s policy to combat Palestinian terrorism, saying that whoever murders Israelis “will end up in one of two places: prison or the grave.”

Netanyahu began his remarks at the weekly Cabinet meeting by extending his condolences to the families of Chief Sgt. David Yehuda Yitzchak, 23, a non-commissioned officer from the Egoz commando unit who was killed last week as Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin following a two-day counterterrorism raid, and Staff Sgt. Shilo Yosef Amir, 22, a member of the Givati Brigade who was shot dead two days later by a Palestinian terrorist seeking to infiltrate the town of Kedumim.

The government’s policy was being implemented in three ways, the prime minister continued.

“First, we settle accounts with the assailants themselves, without exception. Second, we strike those who dispatch terrorists and at terrorist infrastructure. Third, we initiate and use the element of surprise. We determine the timing of our actions, as we did in ‘Operation Shield and Arrow’ against Islamic Jihad in Gaza [in May], and as we did in the operation against terrorists in Jenin. We are changing the equation and so we will continue,” added Netanyahu.