Description

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- An Israeli security guard was critically wounded in a stabbing allegedly carried out by a Palestinian in the illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim east of Jerusalem overnight Thursday.

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said that at around 1:30 a.m., a Palestinian armed with a knife repeatedly stabbed the 48-year-old security guard inside a shopping mall in the settlement before fleeing the scene.

The security guard was evacuated to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem in critical condition.

A spokesperson for the hospital said Friday that he had undergone hours of surgery lasting until 7 a.m. and his life remained at risk.
Rosenfeld said Israeli forces were searching the area. Palestinian workers have been banned from entering the settlement until at least Sunday.

There have been a number of attacks carried out by Palestinians in or close to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the year.

On Jan. 25, two Palestinian youths were shot dead after stabbing to death a 24-year-old Israeli woman in the illegal Beit Horon settlement near Jerusalem.

A few days before, on Jan. 22, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl was shot dead after Israeli police said she attempted to stab an Israeli security guard outside the illegal settlement of Anatot northeast of Jerusalem.

However, the majority of Palestinians attacks since a wave of unrest swept the occupied territory in October last year have been directed at Israeli military forces deployed in the West Bank.
_____

Victim hospitalized with life-threatening wounds after being stabbed multiple times in a mall in settlement of Ma'ale Adumim in what is being investigated as a terror attack.

By Yaniv Kobovich for Haaretz

An Israeli man in his 40s was critically wounded early Friday after being stabbed multiple times in a mall in the Jerusalem-area settlement of Ma'ale Adumim.

The assailant fled the scene shortly before police and security forces arrived. The Shin Bet said they are treating the incident as a likely terror attack.

At roughly 1:15 am Friday, the police received alerts of a stabbing at the Ma'ale Adumim mall, and a large number of forces arrived there and found a 47-year-old security guard lying unconscious on the floor with numerous knife wounds to his upper torso.

The victim was rushed to a Jerusalem hospital where he was put on life support and was now undergoing surgery. Medical officials from the Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem said the man's life was still at risk.

The police and Shin Bet are investigating the stabbing as a politically motivated attack and security forces are conducting a manhunt for the assailant. As a precaution, Ma'ale Adumim has been closed for Palestinian laborers by the police until Sunday, they said.

On Wednesday, an Israeli soldiers shot and killed Capt. (res.) Eliav Gelman, a reservist Israeli officer, while trying to subdue a knife-wielding Palestinian man at Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank. The IDF spokesman said Gelman was shot by an IDF force that had opened fire on a terrorist.