fbpx

News

Israeli teenager seriously wounded in stabbing attack

[ssba]

An 18-year-old Israeli student was stabbed in a terrorist attack in the northern Israeli city of Afula yesterday.

Shuva Malka was travelling to a school examination when she was attacked by a lone Palestinian assailant.

A hospital spokesperson said the student arrived in a “serious condition,” but has now been stabilised and is conscious. A paramedic who arrived at the scene said the victim “suffered from several bleeding wounds in her upper body” and required “life-saving first aid”.

Police confirmed that the assailant, who fled the scene, was shot in the leg before being arrested. The suspect has been identified as a man in his 20s from Jenin, in Israel without a permit.

New research published yesterday by the Israeli Public Security Ministry and the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) revealed the growing trend in so-called “lone wolf” terror attacks, in which the perpetrator receives no operational support from a terrorist organisation.

The research found that in 60 per cent of these attacks between 2015 and 2017, the assailant had indicated their intention to carry out an attack in advance on social media. The study, based on psychological interviews with 700 individuals who carried out 560 such terror attacks, aims to help the Israeli Public Security Ministry identify and prevent attacks at an early stage.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said the research was “an important tool in the development of new measures to prevent terror attacks”.

In a related incident last night, a 19-year-old Palestinian man was arrested at the entrance to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron after he was found to be carrying a concealed knife. The holy site was visited by around 10,000 Muslim worshippers yesterday.