Palestinians held for J'lem stabbings

Two Islamic Jihad members, Ahmed Hassin, 21, and Bilal Kamil, 27, confessed to the allegations against them, police said.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
stabbers 298.88 (photo credit: Israel Police)
stabbers 298.88
(photo credit: Israel Police)
Two members of an Islamic Jihad cell have been arrested for allegedly carrying out three stabbing attacks in and around Jerusalem over the last several months, police said Monday. Ahmed Hassin, 21, of Kalandiya north of Jerusalem and Bilal Kamil, 27, from Kabatiya near Jenin were apprehended last month following a joint police, IDF and Shin Bet security service manhunt. A gag order on the case was lifted on Monday afternoon. The two suspects, who have been remanded in custody for the duration of their trial, have confessed to the allegations against them, police said. The men are suspected of stabbing a 14-year-old yeshiva student in east Jerusalem last November and stabbing two Israelis in the Atarot Industrial Zone on the northern outskirts of the capital in December and February. Jerusalem yeshiva student Yishai Nachman was moderately wounded in a Sabbath eve attack. The two other victims were lightly wounded. In the November attack, the suspects, who had purchased a knife in the Old City of Jerusalem after Friday prayers on the Temple Mount, lay in wait for a Jewish victim near the grave of Simon the Righteous in the city's Sheikh Jarah neighborhood, police said. They noticed Nachman making his way out of the area, which is surrounded by Arab villages, and stabbed him in the back six times before fleeing, police said. In December and then again in February, Hassin, who worked in the industrial zone, struck again, stabbing two Israelis there, according to police. The Kalandiya industrial zone, which lies adjacent to the West Bank, has been the site of terror-related attacks against Jewish workers in the past. The two suspects told interrogators that they also planned to kidnap a Jew to attain the release of Palestinian prisoners, police said. Also Monday, Jerusalem police said that three Jerusalem Arabs teens were under arrest for allegedly throwing 70 firebombs at Israeli vehicles traveling on the Jerusalem-Ma'aleh Adumim Road over the last several months, in 20 separate attacks. The three suspects, including two minors, told investigators they were members of the Fatah movement, police said. The suspects in the case have also been remanded in custody for the duration of their trial.