BICOM

Two Israeli police officers were badly wounded yesterday after they were stabbed by a Palestinian assailant at the entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City.

The knife attack happened at the Herod’s Gate. The two officers were on an early morning foot patrol when they were stabbed by a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem. The attack left a 38-year-old female officer in a critical condition, while her 48-year-old colleague was said to have been seriously injured. The policeman managed to draw his sidearm and shoot the attacker, who is also being treated in a Jerusalem hospital.

Also yesterday, two Palestinians attempted to stab Border Police officers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron. The officers opened fire before the assailants could cause any harm. One assailant was declared dead at the scene, while the other later succumbed to his wounds in hospital. The site is holy to both Jews and Muslims and has been a flashpoint for violence during the past year.

Yesterday evening an Israeli bus was attacked with rocks in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Wadi al-Joz. The driver was lightly injured and police are still searching for the assailant.

The unrest follows a weekend of violence in which there were five separate attacks on Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank towns of Kiryat Arba, Efrat and Hebron, between Friday and Sunday. Several Israelis were wounded while the Palestinian attackers were shot and wounded or killed at the scene. It remains unclear whether there was a direct, short-term explanation for the latest attacks. However, some fear that such violence could increase as the Jewish New Year and holiday season approaches.

The attacks over the weekend followed several weeks of quiet. A year ago, a wave of Palestinian violence began, consisting mainly of knife and vehicle attacks, killing at least 40 people. However, such violence had appeared to recede to just a trickle of incidents over the summer