A terror attack was thwarted in Jerusalem on Thursday, after a 50-year-old resident of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya tried to stab a young Jewish woman near Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital.
According to a police investigation, the man was following the young woman. Near the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital, he pulled out a long kitchen knife and began chasing her.
After noticing him, the woman ran towards the hospital guards, who managed to gain control of the attacker together with a taxi driver passing by.
The suspect told his investigators that his friends from Issawiya suspected that he had been collaborating with Israel ,and that he decided to stab a Jewish woman in order to prove them wrong.
According to the police, the same suspect was arrested in 1986 for being a member of terrorist organization. He was sentenced to a year in prison but did not take an active part in terror attacks.
The suspect's mental condition deteriorated during the interrogation and he was later evacuated to the Eitanim psychiatric hospital near Jerusalem for an evaluation. On Friday the police are expected to ask the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court to extend his remand.