Ten wounded over the weekend as terror attacks continue nationwide

Israelis assaulted in capital, West Bank; Three terrorists killed in Jerusalem as Old City, Shuafat refugee camp become flashpoints for violence; Female would-be attacker wounded in Afula.

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD, YAAKOV LAPPIN
Updated: OCTOBER 11, 2015 05:02
Three police officers wounded in terror attack in Jerusalem (photo credit: NOAM AMIR)
Three police officers wounded in terror attack in Jerusalem
(photo credit: NOAM AMIR)
Arab terrorists wounded 10 civilians and four police officers in Jerusalem and the West Bank in eight terror attacks over the weekend, as the wave of terrorism that began on October 6 continued.
Police shot and killed two of the attackers in the capital on Saturday.
Another Arab man, 25, who was wounded after he shot at border policemen during a full-blown riot in Shuafat refugee camp in northeastern Jerusalem, died on Saturday morning.
The riot on Friday followed the funeral in the camp of Ahmed Kali, 22, who had stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy near a northeastern Jerusalem light rail stop and charged Border Police officers.
Jerusalem stabbing scene October 10
At least 11 border policemen and dozens of Arab rioters were wounded across the West Bank and in the capital over the weekend.
In Saturday’s first attack, shortly before 11 a.m., a 16-yearold Arab stabbed two Jewish men in their 60s some 150 meters from Damascus Gate, leaving them moderately and lightly wounded, respectively, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
The teenager then charged Border Police officers, who shot him dead, Rosenfeld said. Both victims were treated by Magen David Adom paramedics and rushed to Hadassah-University Medical Center in Ein Kerem.
A riot ensued at the Old City moments later, as dozens of Arab men converged on the scene, forcing police to use non-lethal means, including stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the mob, Rosenfeld said.
In the second attack in the capital on Saturday, at approximately 3 p.m., a 19-year-old Palestinian from the Shuafat refugee camp stabbed two officers from the police’s Special Patrol Unit near Damascus Gate; police then shot and killed him, Rosenfeld said.
“Following the earlier terrorist attack in the area, police saw a suspicious Arab man and asked him for identification as part of the intensive police operations taking place in and around the Old City to prevent further attacks,” he said. “After handing over his ID card, the terrorist stabbed one of the officers in the neck and another one in the upper body.
Police nearby shot and killed him, and a third officer was lightly wounded when he was accidentally struck by one of the bullets.”
Rosenfeld said the three officers were rushed to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem in serious-to-moderate condition.
Police have since cordoned off the area near Damascus Gate to avert further violence, and initiated an investigation to determine whether the assailants acted alone, Rosenfeld said.
Before Kali’s funeral in Shuafat on Friday, police held his body amid heated negotiations with his family in an effort to ensure the funeral would be peaceful. Nonetheless, a mob of masked and armed Arabs attacked border policemen around the time of the service, Rosenfeld said.
“Border policemen responded to a riot at Shuafat refugee camp at around 11 p.m. and were attacked by hundreds of Palestinians who threw rocks, firebombs and pipe bombs, and employed live fire,” he said.
“Fearing for their lives, police shot the gunman and seized his weapon, then used non-lethal means to disperse the crowd to avoid any other injuries.”
No officers were wounded and no arrests were made, Rosenfeld said.
Tensions were already boiling over in Shuafat, after Wissam Faraj, 20, was killed on Thursday night during another riot, when he attacked border policemen who came to search the home of Subhi Abu Khalifa, who is suspected of stabbing a yeshiva student in the neck in Jerusalem earlier in the day.
Rosenfeld said at least nine officers were lightly wounded during the clash.
Hours after that riot, an Arab youth was arrested after repeatedly punching a 16-year-old Jewish boy in the face and then stabbing him in the shoulder on Jerusalem’s well-traveled Shmuel Hanavi Street, located in the north-central part of the capital, Rosenfeld said.
The Israeli teen, who did not realize he had been stabbed, was treated MDA paramedics before being taken to Hadassah- University Medical Center at Mount Scopus in good condition.
The terrorist tried to flee on foot, but police tackled him, Rosenfeld said. A 43-year old man suffered a head injury when stones were thrown at a bus on the same street on Saturday night, MDA said. Rosenfeld added that police have heightened security in the capital to the highest level, and continue to respond to terrorist attacks immediately.
“Police units are at the scenes of a wave of terrorist attacks almost instantly, and are making sure that the terrorists are apprehended, neutralized or killed immediately,” he said.
“Additional units have also been deployed in the Old City and all public areas, including the bus and trains stations and malls, to respond immediately.”
Rosenfeld added that multiple police units are patrolling Route 1, from Damascus Gate north to Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood.
“Police are leaving nothing to chance and will continue to try to prevent, and immediately respond to, terrorist attacks,” he said.
Meanwhile, there has been criticism in the Arab sector since Friday of the police’s handling of an attempted knife attack in the Afula Central Bus Station. Video emerged of officers shooting a female Arab-Israeli holding a knife in the station.
The woman can be seen standing still and holding the weapon, while police – with their guns drawn – tell her to drop the knife and surrender.
After a tense few seconds, the officers open fire, shooting several bullets and hitting her in the legs. She was moderately wounded and taken to the hospital.
Critics say that although the woman refused to disarm, she was standing when she was shot on Friday.
Minutes earlier, she had failed in an attempt to stab a soldier at the bus station.
The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) later identified her as Asra Zidan Abd, 30, from Nazareth.
She had no record of security-related offenses.
A day earlier, an Arab stabbed and badly wounded a soldier in Afula; bystanders stopped him and held him for police.
In the West Bank on Friday, a soldier was moderately wounded by a gunshot to his upper part on Saturday night, near the southern gate to the Kiryat Arba settlement, an IDF spokesman said. He was evacuated to Hadassah-University Medical Center in Ein Kerem. A day earlier, a 31-year-old Israeli sustained serious stab wounds in an attack at the gate.
On Friday afternoon, five Israelis – three of them children – were lightly wounded when Palestinians threw rocks at their vehicle between the Shiloh and Ma’aleh Levona settlements in Samaria.
Among those wounded was Oriya Dagan, the wife of Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, and their three children. They were taken to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
Yossi Dagan has spearheaded the battle by settlers and rightwing politicians to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to authorize settlement building as a response to the wave of terrorism. He has also called for improved security, particularly on the West Bank roads. For the last eight days, since terrorists killed Naama and Eitam Henkin near Nablus, Yossi Dagan has sat in a protest tent near the Prime Minister’s Residence in the capital.
Oriya Dagan was on her way to meet her husband in the capital when her vehicle was attacked.
“There is always a fear that something like this could happen, but even so, you are never prepared when it does,” Yossi Dagan said. “It only strengthens my resolve to insist on better security. Terrorism on the roads from stones, to say nothing of gunshots and stabbings, is not something we should ever get used to.”
Elsewhere in the West Bank, two Border Police officers and dozens of Palestinians were wounded during a series of clashes.
On Saturday night, a 53-year old woman was lightly wounded by glass shards when Palestinians threw stones at her car as she traveled on Route 60, near the tunnel leading from Jerusalem to the Efrat settlement.
On Friday, at a checkpoint in Hebron, some 100 Palestinians hurled rocks at soldiers, who responded with crowd control measures.
At Kafr Kaddum, west of Nablus, 40 Palestinians threw rocks and rolled burning tires at soldiers, who responded with riot dispersal means.
At Halhoul Bridge near Hebron, 300 Palestinians hurled rocks and firebombs at soldiers, and at Rachel’s Tomb on the northern outskirts of Bethlehem, some 200 Palestinians threw rocks and firebombs at soldiers. Units deployed crowd control measures.
At Jalama, near Jenin, several Palestinians threw firebombs and burning tires, injuring a border policeman, and at Kalandia, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, 300 Palestinians hurled rocks, burning tires, and a gas tank at security personnel.
A policeman was taken to the hospital after a rock hit him.
Rioters snatched a firearm from a soldier near Azun, in the Nablus area, on Friday; the firearm was subsequently retrieved.
On Friday night, in the settlement of Neguhot in the Mount Hebron region, an IDF officer tasked with securing the area spotted a Palestinian armed with a knife seeking to infiltrate the community.
He alerted the local armed civilian response team, which shot the terrorist in the leg.
The IDF evacuated him to the hospital; security forces were expected to question him later.
On Saturday, there was a marked drop in the number of clashes in the West Bank.
Between 100 and 200 Palestinians created a violent disturbance at the Ayosh junction between Ramallah and Beit El, and there was a minor disturbance at Hashaon Square in Hebron.
A small number of rioters clashed with soldiers at the Zif junction.
The current wave of Arab violence began last month after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon barred two violent Islamic fundamentalist groups from the Temple Mount for attacking and harassing Jewish visitors, and has intensified since October 6, after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.
The PA and other Arab groups have since falsely claimed that the Israeli government intends to seize al-Aksa Mosque, despite repeated assurances from Netanyahu to the contrary.