Two people injured in an alleged terror stabbed in Jerusalem on Monday were allowed to return home on Tuesday, according to Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
The two men, ultra-Orthodox twenty-year-old yeshiva students, were taken to hospital in moderation after suffering stab wounds to the upper body during the attack near the capital’s central bus station on Monday in the afternoon.
Authorities say Basil Shawamra, a 17-year-old Palestinian from the Hebron area, broke into a shop near the bus station, which was usually bustling, and stabbed the two men. He was shot by a police officer while fighting one of the victims and was hospitalized in Shaarei Zedek in serious condition.
Palestinian sources said he was still in a serious condition and intubated in a ventilator.
“He pulled out a meat knife, not very big, and stabbed my friend five times,” Ynet Meir Navon, one of the victims, told the news site. “Then he came to me and managed to stab me in the back. I ran to the store and he grabbed me by the suit and tried to stab me in the neck, head and back ”.
“I said, ‘I have to defend myself,’ and I grabbed his throat and we fell to the ground together, where I grabbed his hand so he couldn’t stab me anymore.”
Police and staff health workers evacuate the alleged assailant injured after a knife attack at Jerusalem Central Bus Station on September 13, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
Hamas terrorist groups and Islamic Jihad praised the attack on Monday and said it was linked to an increase in violent incidents caused by the escape of six security prisoners from an Israeli prison.
Earlier Monday, a Palestinian man attempted to stab two Israeli Defense Forces soldiers at a hitchhiking station, but was shot before he could cause damage, according to the military.
Preliminary: Alleged stabbing attack on Jerusalem Central Bus Station. Two 25-year-olds were moderately injured and the terrorist was neutralized@ SuleimanMas1 pic.twitter.com/x7g5W12cNn
– News here (@kann_news) September 13, 2021
Tensions have spread across the West Bank last week following the dramatic escape of six Palestinian prisoners from Gilboa High Security Prison on 6 September.
Four of the six detainees were recovered by police over the weekend, but two remain at large and security officials believe they may be hiding in the West Bank and receiving assistance from Palestinians there.
Heavy gunfire was heard in the northern West Bank region of Jenin on Sunday, Israeli security forces said during the manhunt of the two remaining fugitive prisoners.
On Sunday night, terrorists from the Gaza Strip fired two rockets at Israel, marking a third consecutive night of rockets from Gaza.
Separately, on Friday afternoon, an assailant was shot while trying to stab police officers in the old city of Jerusalem and later died from his injuries, police and hospital officials said. .
The attempted stabbing occurred at the Old City Council (Majlis) gate on the north side of the western wall of Temple Mount, police said. The video of the incident showed the assailant repeatedly trying to stab a police officer, who pulled away and opened fire.
Aaron Boxerman and Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.