Israeli Man Stabbed in Jerusalem's Old City, Police Arrest Suspected Terrorist

Jerusalem, 2 May, 2016 (TPS) -- Jerusalem (TPS) – An Israeli man was stabbed on Monday night in a terror attack near the Lions’ Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City. The assailant fled and was caught hours later after a widespread police manhunt.

“A man about 60 years old was sitting near the the Lions’ Gate with a stab wound on the upper portion of his body,” said Israel Weingarten, a paramedic who arrived on the scene to treat the victim. “He was fully conscious and told us that he was stabbed in an alleyway and ran toward the Lions’ Gate to reach the security forces stationed there.”

The victim is a 60-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jew who exited a yeshiva near the Muslim Quarter. A police spokesperson said that the man approached the police “and reported that he had been stabbed on Halediya St.,” one of many alleys in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter – and home to the Shuvu Banim yeshivah where the victim studied.

The victim received initial treatment by paramedics at the scene and was transferred to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center in moderate but stable condition. On Tuesday morning the hospital updated that his condition had further stabilized during the night. “He was stabbed in his upper back, hitting one of his lungs, and he is currently in the Heart and Chest Intensive Care department,” said a Shaare Zedek spokesperson.

A knife was found on the street during a police search shortly after the attack, and the police closed the area and conducted a large-scale manhunt for suspects.

Three hours after the attack, police forces broke into an apartment in the Old City and arrested an 18-year-old Palestinian resident of Judea and Samaria. According to the police, the suspect admitted committing the attack during an initial interrogation. Nevertheless, a police spokesperson said the investigation of the attack was “still ongoing.” The suspect will remain in custody for 96 hours.

The police announced on Tuesday morning that they arrested a second man during the night on suspicion of aiding the suspected terrorist. He is a 20-year-old resident of the Old City, and his remand has been extended until Thursday.

The alleyways of Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter have frequently been the site of terror attacks against Jews over the last several months, beginning last October when two Israelis were stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist in the Quarter – an incident that inaugurated a wave of near-daily terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. Nonetheless, the area has seen a marked decline in attacks over the last few weeks in the aftermath of a Jerusalem bus-bombing carried out by a Hamas militant.

Monday’s stabbing, however, shatters the relative calm that has prevailed in recent weeks, stoking concerns that the daily terror attacks could return with renewed force.

Michael Bachner contributed to this report.