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by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencie

The Israeli Police kidnapped 18 Palestinians in Ras Al-Amoud and Silwan neighborhoods, in occupied East Jerusalem after an unknown assailant stabbed, on Friday evening, a Jewish settler in Ras Al-Amoud.

The Quds Net News Agency reported that dozens of soldiers and military jeeps were deployed at the entrance of Ras Al-Amoud, while Israeli security personnel, undercover forces of the army, and members of the Border Guard units, were heavily deployed in the alleys and neighborhoods in Silwan and Ras Al-Amoud before they started breaking into Arab homes in an attempt to locate the stabber.

The Quds Net said that eighteen young Palestinian Jerusalemites were kidnapped, and were taken to the Al-Maskobiyya interrogation and detention facility in West Jerusalem. Six of the eighteen kidnapped residents were released several hours after their arrest.

The situation in the area remains tensed while eyewitnesses said that the Police also broke into Abouna Ibrahim Monastery in Ras Al-Amoud during the search campaign.

Israeli Police Arab Media spokesperson, Luba Samri, stated that the initial investigation revealed that the settler was stabbed as he was walking from the Al-Boraq Wall (Western Wall) heading towards the illegal settlement the was built by Jewish Millionaire, Moskowitz, in Ras Al-Amoud.

The settler was walking along with his friend, and when the two arrived near the Ras Al-Amoud Junction, “two Arab youths attacked them, and stabbed one of them in the back, before fleeing the scene”, according to the Israeli Police.

Samri said that, after the attack, the two settlers walked to the settlement, and called for help ; medics then moved the wounded settler to the Hadassah Ein Karem Israeli Hospital in the city, the other settler was not harmed.

Samri added that the police is still searching for the two suspects who carried out the attack, and that the kidnapped residents will remain under interrogation until further notice. She also stated that the attack seems to be nationally motivated.

Later on, the Israeli police enforced a gag order on the investigation, and refrained from providing any further information regarding the attack, the search campaign, and all related information.