Two Israeli teenagers were moderately injured Monday in a stabbing attack on the Jerusalem bus station.
The alleged assailant, 17-year-old Basil Shawamra, a resident of the town of Deir al-Asal al-Fauqa, near Hebron in the southern West Bank, had been “neutralized.”
Officials said the attack took place at the entrance to the capital’s main public transport depot.
The alleged terrorist stabbed two Haredi teenagers inside a clothing store and was shot by security officers at the scene.
The two wounded were taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
“There is certainly an escalation we are facing and we are deployed in force on the field for any scenario,” Jerusalem District Police Commander Doron Turgeman told reporters at the site.
“We arrived at the scene and there was a big commotion,” said Shlomi Pinchas, a paramedic from Magen David Adom who arrived at the scene.
“The two injured were unconscious on the ground and suffered stab wounds. We provided them with medical treatment on the spot, which included stopping the bleeding, administering medication and evacuating them quickly to a hospital.”
Yaakov Rahman, an eyewitness who was at the scene of the attack, told Ynet: “The terrorist entered the Adika store on Jaffa Street, near the bus station. He stabbed a gun nailed to a “Ultra-Orthodox man in hand and another person in the head. Security personnel fired two bullets inside the store.”
Tensions have risen in the West Bank in recent days following the escape of six Palestinian prisoners from Gilboa prison last week and the subsequent capture of four of the six fugitives.