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Photo:
Scene of a stabbing attack at Ramle's central bus station on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. Credit: Medabrim Tikshoret
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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Two Palestinian girls were detained after attempting to attack an Israeli security guard at a bus station in the central Israeli city of Ramla on Thursday, an Israeli police spokesperson said.

Police spokesperson Luba al-Samri identified the two girls as 13-year-olds from the al-Jawarish area of Ramla.

"The two arrived at the central bus station in Ramle, when the security guard asked them to identify themselves before going into search machine, they stabbed him," al-Samri said, adding that one of the teens was carrying a school bag.

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said a security guard was "lightly" injured. Rosenfeld shared a photo on social media of two kitchen knives scattered amongst school papers at the scene of the incident. The knives appeared to be clean, with no signs of blood.

While Palestinian attacks against Israelis have surged since a wave of unrest began in October, the vast majority of attacks have taken place in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The attack comes one day after three Palestinian youth were shot dead in front of East Jerusalem's Damascus gate after shooting dead one 19-year-old Israeli Border Police officer and seriously injuring another.

On Sunday, a Palestinian Authority police officer was shot dead after he opened fire on Israeli soldiers stationed at an Israeli military checkpoint near the Beit El settlement north of Ramallah in the West Bank, injuring three soldiers.

The attack came shortly after a 17-year-old Israeli was stabbed and injured in Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday. Israeli police reported that a 16-year-old Palestinian from an East Jerusalem neighborhood later turned himself in claiming responsibility for the attack.

Efforts by actors in the international community to quell recent violence and return Israeli and Palestinian leadership to negotiations have so far failed.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon meanwhile last month criticized Israeli policy, saying that it was "human nature" for Palestinians to react violently to Israel's nearly 50-year military occupation.

Ban condemned the series of violent attacks carried out by Palestinians in recent months, but said that Israeli security measures were failing to "address the profound sense of alienation and despair driving some Palestinians -- especially young people."
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by Yaniv Kubovich for Haaretz

04.02.2016 | 7:37 PM
Court extends remand of suspected assailants

The Rishon Letzion Magistrate's Court extended by five days the remand of the two Israeli Arab girls suspected of stabbing a security guard at Ramle's central bus station on Thursday morning.
The investigation of the two is ongoing, and they appear to have been politically motivated to carry out the attack, police said.

04.02.2016 | 11:53 AM
Ramle mayor: Attack not characteristic of city's Arab community

Ramle Mayor Yoel Lavie said after the stabbing attack that police were still investigating the assailants' motivation.
"This is not characteristic of the Arab community in Ramle," said Lavie. "Ramle is a multi-culture city in which Jews and Arabs live in coexistence."

Lavie added that educational facilities in the city had been instructed to hold discussions on the incident with students.

04.02.2016 | 11:34 AM
Both suspected assailants are 13-year-old Israeli Arab females

Both suspected assailants in the stabbing attack in Ramle are 13-year-old Israeli Arab females. 
One was traveling with a school bag and the two allegedly pulled out knives when requested to pass through a security check at the entrance to Ramle's central bus station. 
The security guard at the entrance to the station was lightly wounded with stab wounds in his leg and arm.


04.02.2016 | 11:26 AM
Wounded Israeli is security guard, both attackers arrested

The lightly wounded Israeli in a stabbing attack in Ramle was a security guard at the entrance to the central bus station.

The two female Arab attackers are minors and were arrested.