By Alexander J. Apfel/TPS Samaria (TPS) – Israeli border police thwarted a potential stabbing attack in the early afternoon of Monday, January 4 after a knife was found on a 26-year-old Palestinian man.
According to a border police statement, a suspicious Palestinian man approached the Tapuah Junction checkpoint in Samaria prompting border police to ask him to stop. Failing to respond, the individual continued to approach the checkpoint at which point security personnel implemented military procedure in order to bring him to a halt.
Following his arrest, the man was checked and, according to the statement, “a knife was found with which it was suspected that he intended to carry out an attack on security personnel located in the area.”
The unit commander at the scene, Superintendent Ofir Dahari, praised the swift response of the soldiers. “We have prepared and briefed the soldiers to be ready for precisely these types of scenarios and today the professionalism and the speed of the soldiers’ response were the central elements which brought this incident to an end with no injuries to our forces,” Dahari said.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect is a resident of Jenin. He has been arrested and taken for further questioning.
Shortly after 3pm, two more 15-year-old Arabs were arrested by security forces near Herod’s Gate in the Old City. Policemen spotted that the boys’ appeared to be hiding something in their clothes.
After stopping them to be checked, police found a knife on the suspects, both of whom were taken for further investigation.
A commander in the area praised the actions of the policemen on site. “Their professionalism can and, indeed, has prevented an attack on innocent people. Policemen and border police are spread throughout the Old City in order to protect the civilians and and tourists and they operate resolutely in every incident.”
Police last thwarted a terrorist attack on December 30 when two Arab minors, aged 12 and 13, were apprehended in central Jerusalem after police discovered that they were both carrying knives.