A Palestinian teenager stabbed a 19-year-old female soldier on the light rail in
Jerusalem Thursday morning, seriously wounding the woman before
fleeing.
The attacker rode the train north until the Pisgat Ze’ev
station, where he stood up and stabbed the woman, who was in uniform, several
times before running away as the doors opened, said Dep.-Ch. Nissan Aderi, the
commander of the police’s Zion Precinct.
This is the first terrorist
attack on the light rail since it began carrying passengers in August. The
suspect was caught around 11:30 a.m. at the Kalandiya crossing, located near the
Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood, trying to return to Palestinian Authority- controlled
territory.
He admitted to carrying out the attack and was questioned by
security forces. Investigators were trying to determine whether the teenager
acted alone or was part of an organized terrorist group, National Police
spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Paramedics treated the victim before evacuating her to the capital’s Shaare
Zedek Medical Center in serious condition. The IDF Spokesman’s Office said the
soldier was headed to her Jerusalem base when she was stabbed.
Light rail
security officers had checked the teenager when he boarded the train but did not
find his knife. Northbound light rail service was suspended after the attack,
but resumed after approximately two hours.
“We did not have any
intelligence that there would be a terrorist attack on or around the light
rail,” Aderi said. “The light rail is secure... There are guards and Jerusalem
residents can continue to travel on it.”
The level of alert was raised in
Jerusalem following the attack, though the city was already on heightened alert
due to the thousands of runners preparing to run in the annual marathon on
Friday morning. The alert level was not raised around the country following the
attack, Rosenfeld said.
Dvir Adani, a 22-year-old volunteer with United
Hatzalah first responders, was the first paramedic on the scene.
“When I
got here, I saw a woman in her 20s lying on the ground losing blood. I started
giving her first aid until the ambulance arrived,” he said.
“She was
stabbed in the chest and had a few cuts in other areas. I heard her say: ‘Why
me? Why did this happen to me?’” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat visited the soldier
at the hospital on Thursday afternoon, and urged calm.
“Routine events in
Jerusalem will continue as planned and the light rail will continue to operate,
serving all residents both Arab and Jewish,” he said.