Two stabbing attacks against the Israeli police and army took place on Sunday evening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, during which the attackers were killed without causing any casualties among the police, the police and the army.
These almost simultaneous incidents occur in a context of tensions fueled in Israel and the Palestinian territories by the war underway for four months between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Shortly after 9 p.m. in East Jerusalem's Old City, a man arrived near a police checkpoint, approached officers and
"suddenly pulled out a knife and tried to stab them
," a spokesperson said. of the Israeli police in a message to the press.
The police
“reacted quickly”
and
“neutralized the terrorist by shooting
,” he added, specifying that
there were “no victims among the police”
but that
“a passer-by was slightly injured in the leg
.
He was hit by a fragment of a bullet, the emergency services said.
In the heart of the Old Town
Images posted on social media showed police running through the streets of the Old City, which is home to Christian, Jewish and Muslim holy sites.
Around the same time in Hussan, a village in the occupied West Bank 10 kilometers from Jerusalem, another assailant
“tried to stab a soldier”
Israeli deployed at a roadblock and was
“neutralized”
by the soldiers, said the army in a message to the press.
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Since the start of the war triggered by the Hamas attack on October 7 in Israel, tensions have been numerous in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, and in the occupied West Bank, and incidents increased.
On December 31, two people were lightly injured in a stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian, who was killed, near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
On November 6, an assailant stabbed and seriously injured an Israeli soldier in front of a police station in East Jerusalem, before being killed.
On October 12 and 30, two Palestinians from East Jerusalem were killed after opening fire on soldiers, the first trying to stab a police officer, the second before being killed.