BICOM

A security guard was wounded yesterday at the bus station in the central Israeli city of Ramle, after having been stabbed by two local 13-year-old Arab girls.

The two girls approached the bus station complex, which also houses a shopping centre and government offices. Asked by the security guard to undergo a routine check, they pulled kitchen knives from their clothing and stabbed the victim in the hand and leg. A civilian and soldier on the scene quickly subdued the girls until police arrived on the scene. The security guard was evacuated to hospital with light injuries.

The teenage girls live locally in the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Ramle. The city’s mayor Yoel Lavie commented, “This is not characteristic of the Arab community in Ramle,” describing it as “a multi-cultural city in which Jews and Arabs live in coexistence.” Lavie said that schools in the city had been instructed to discuss yesterday’s attack.

A Rishon Le Zion court yesterday remanded the attackers for an extra five days. Questioned by the police, the two teenage girls reportedly said that they carried out the attack in protest at Israel’s “killing of Palestinians” and in “revenge for the situation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” in Jerusalem which has been a focal point for the current wave of violence. Since the start of October, there have been near-daily attacks on Israelis, mainly stabbings and vehicle ramming, which have seen at least 30 Israelis killed.

On Wednesday, a border policewoman was shot dead by Palestinian terrorists near the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City. 19-year-old Hadar Cohen was buried yesterday. Meanwhile, clashes took place in Qabatiya in the West Bank, where two of the attackers came from. Three Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians were wounded as the IDF moved in to make arrests.

Also yesterday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lodged a complaint with the Knesset ethics committee against three Arab MKs who visited the families of Palestinian terrorists who recently murdered Israelis.