Two attackers stabbed a 17-year-old Israeli in the back in Jerusalem on Saturday evening, lightly wounding him. The pair fled the scene, prompting a search by security forces.
One of the teenagers who committed the attack, a 16-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, turned himself in to the police overnight Saturday, hours after the attack.
The teen surrendered to police forces who found him after identifying him from security photos taken at the scene.
On Sunday, the third suspect was arrested following a joint operation by police and intelligence services. The suspect, 15, is a resident of Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem.
On Saturday night, police forces arrested two teenagers from East Jerusalem in connection with the attack. The two arrestees were taken for interrogation.
The teenager was attacked at 5.40pm on Sultan Suleiman Street, next to Damascus Gate outside the Old City. A spokesperson from the Jerusalem District Police said that two young Jews were set on by the attackers after leaving the Western Wall, but that the second one managed to run back into the Old City via Damascus Gate, where he alerted police about the attack.
Paramedics treated the teenager at the scene, before he was taken to the Hadassah Mt. Scopus Hospital. The hospital confirmed that it had received the teenager in its emergency room, lightly wounded but conscious.
The teenager estimated that his attackers were aged between 14 and 15 years old.
The wounded teen made aliyah to Israel six weeks ago in order to join the army, leaving behind his ultra-Orthodox family in Brooklyn. Currently studying at a pre-military academy outside Jerusalem, he had been on his way back from prayers
when he and his friend were attacked.
"I saw them running and I started to run," the teen told Ynet. "I realized it was an attack and that I'd been stabbed. I didn't see him before he came up behind me. There were two of them and they both had knives."
Despite the attack, he has not been put off his goal. "I want to join Sayeret Matkal. I was stabbed, and now I'm going to join the army and give it my all," he said.
The last stabbing attack took place on Wednesday, when a Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli in his 50s in the Givat Ze'ev settlement. Civilians apprehended the attacker, who was taken to hospital with minor injuries.