Border Policeman stabbed in Jerusalem, shoots Palestinian assailant
Soldier is in critical condition after sustaining stab wounds to his neck in attack at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City.
A Border Police soldier was stabbed at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday, managing to fire at the Palestinian attacker before collapsing.
Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the soldier, who was in critical condition with stab wounds to his neck and chest, to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
"We're in the first stages of treatment. The soldier arrived an hour and a half ago in critical condition with multiple wounds. The main wounds were to his neck and chest, with one to his heart. Currently, he is stable and not bleeding, but his life is still in danger," said Dr. Ofer Merin, the head of the trauma unit at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
Police initially reported that the stabber, an 18-year-old from the village of Sa'ir near Hebron, succumbed to his wounds, but that report was incorrect. He was taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem neihgborhood.
The hospital announced in the afternoon that the alleged attacker had undergone surgery after being struck by several bullets that wounded him in the stomach, chest, and lower extremities. He was to be hospitalized in the intensive care unit and kept in an induced coma, in very serious condition.
The stabber entered Israel illegally and was not among the many Palestinians with permits to come to Jerusalem over the holy month of Ramadan. He had no prior security offenses.
"When we arrived at the scene we found a young man around 20 years old lying unconscious with several stab wounds in his upper body. We gave him life-saving medical treatment including anesthetizing and ventilating him, and evacuated him while treating him to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in a very critical condition," MDA paramedic Aharon Adler said.
The evening news aired a video allegedly documenting the stabbing. The video was obtained by police after being distributed on Palestinian social networks. At the time of publication, police believed the video was indeed of the incident. The person seen collapsing in the video was, they said, the terrorist.
Following the attack, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said: "I want to commend the action of a Border Policeman, who while wounded kept his cool and neutralized the terrorist, and thus saved lives and prevented further injuries."
"We all pray for his recovery, and we must persist and continue in our normal routines," Barkat said.
Shortly before the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday morning that the "relative calm in Judea and Samaria must not fool anyone. There are (attack) attempts all of the time, unfortunately some are successful. The reason most are unsuccessful is a result of a joint effort by the IDF and Shin Bet and other Israeli security forces."
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman told Ynet on Sunday shortly before the attack in Jerusalem that Israel has lost its deterrence against its enemies. "My position was very clear before Operation Protective Edge and even after the operation, and I regret that the government did not take my position into mind," he said.
"On the contrary, they are deterring us. We're buying calm from them at the price of reconstruction their terror infrastructure," the former foreign minister said.
Over the weekend, 25-year-old Danny Gonen was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist who shot him 10 bullets at point-blank range.
Yoav Zitun and Omri Efraim contributed to this report.
