BICOM

A 30-year-old Israeli police officer was stabbed in the back yesterday by a Palestinian assailant at the Adam junction in the West Bank, in the latest in a series of violent attacks on Israelis.

According to Israeli Channel Two news, the officer and a colleague were directing traffic at the busy junction between Jerusalem and Ramallah following a traffic accident, when the attacker used a 15cm knife to stab the policeman in the lower back. His colleague opened fire on the assailant who fled towards the Palestinian village of Jaba. The wounded officer was evacuated to Shaare Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem and remains in intensive care.

Israel police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said, “A policeman was gravely wounded by a Palestinian who stabbed him at the Adam intersection,” adding “We are searching the area to arrest the suspect.”

The attack followed an attempt on Sunday night to stab a Border Policeman at the Ma’aleh Adumim junction, also in the West Bank. Earlier on Sunday, a bomb exploded on a bus in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam. Casualties were only averted after a vigilant passenger noticed a suspect package and the driver evacuated the bus. However, Rosenfeld said the three incidents were believed to be unrelated and that “Police are carrying out security assessments after the three attacks.”

Nonetheless, they follow a series of terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank during the last three months. According to a Shin Bet report quoted by Makor Rishon today, incidents of Palestinian violence are increasing, with the number of “nationalist incidents” having doubled since the resumption of peace talks in July.

In October, an Israeli man was bludgeoned to death in the Jordan Valley a week after a nine-year-old girl was shot by an assailant just outside her home in Psagot. In September, an IDF soldier was kidnapped and murdered near Beit Amin and another was shot dead in Hebron.

Meanwhile, IDF soldiers opened fire yesterday on a Palestinian man who attempted to plant an explosive device near the border with the Gaza Strip. It was the latest in a number of similar incidents on the Gaza-Israel border.