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Series of weekend terror incidents hit Jerusalem and West Bank

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A number of Israeli security personnel were injured and two Palestinian assailants killed over the weekend in several terror attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

On Friday night, a 16-year-old Palestinian, Ali Ghannam, from the A-Tur neighbourhood in East Jerusalem attempted to attack a Border Police officer with a butcher’s knife at a checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim. The Israeli army said that Ghannam did not injure his target and was pursued by officers who fired warning shots in the air and eventually “fired precise shots, neutralizing” Ghannam when he refused to stop.

Another stabbing incident took place on Hebron on Saturday, near the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims. A 20-year-old Palestinian stabbed a Border Police officer multiple times in the head, neck and chest, inflicting moderate wounds. A second officer opened fire to incapacitate the attacker, who eventually died of his injuries.

On Saturday afternoon back in Jerusalem, clashes in A-Tur between locals and Israeli security forces lightly injured an officer and several rioters. Later in the day at the nearby the Mount of Olives, a car rammed into Border Police officers. Three were wounded, one moderately, while emergency vehicles attending the scene were struck by Molotov cocktails. The car fled the scene, but a 30-year-old Palestinian from Shuafat in East Jerusalem was arrested yesterday suspected of carrying out the attack.

There have been a number of attacks by Palestinian terrorists on Israelis in Jerusalem during the past several months. Three people were killed, including a three-month-old baby in two separate incidents towards the end of 2014 in which Palestinians ploughed vehicles into waiting commuters. A similar attack two weeks ago killed a 25-year-old Israeli man.

Yesterday, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch warned, “From my experience, it seems there will be more attacks and attempts,” saying “It’s impossible to stop a lone wolf,” noting that the perpetrators appear to be unaffiliated to any specific terror group.