Two Jewish teenagers were stabbed in Jerusalem near the Old City’s Damascus Gate on Saturday night.
The two 17-year-olds were admitted to Hadassah-University Medical Center in Ein Kerem in satisfactory condition with stab wounds to their upper bodies.
The boys were heading to the Western Wall for an all-night study session, as is customary during Shavuot, when they were attacked.
Police arrested a suspect, a 19-year-old Arab resident of the Old City, in his home after he was spotted on a security camera.
“When we got to the scene, we saw a large group of people making their way to the Western Wall,” said a paramedic who treated the victims before they were rushed to the hospital. “They sat a few meters apart from each other on the pavement. They were fully conscious and suffered stab wounds to their backs.”
Jews began celebrating Shavuot at sundown on Saturday night. Worshipers from across Jerusalem flocked to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City for a predawn prayer service, a longheld custom that involves staying up all night studying Torah.
The incident occurred days after a vehicular attack in the nearby a-Tur neighborhood wounded three Border Police officers. On Wednesday, May 20, a Hamas-affiliated terrorist rammed his car into police patrolling the a-Tur junction.
He was shot and killed on the spot by a policeman.