Border policeman thwarts attack at Damascus Gate
Female Arab suspect shot dead by officer
A 49-year-old female terrorist from east Jerusalem was shot and killed after attempting to stab a Border Police officer with scissors near the capital’s Damascus Gate on Wednesday afternoon.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the attack took place shortly after 4 p.m., when the woman, who was recorded on a CCTV surveillance camera, lunged at an officer with the scissors.
“The Border Police officer responded immediately, and the suspect was shot,” he said. “The area was cordoned off and the terrorist was treated at the scene by Magen David Adom paramedics before being transferred to an area hospital, where she later died.”
Rosenfeld said the officer was uninjured, and the area was promptly secured.
“We have confirmed that it was a terrorist attack, and the Border Police officer responded at the scene properly,” he said. “Right now, we’re looking into her background, but it appears she acted alone.”
The attempted attack follows a relative lull in violence in the once volatile area, where over a dozen stabbings took place against police and Jews during the so-called “stabbing intifada.”
Rosenfeld said heightened security will continue in the area.
Last week, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Nadav Argaman warned that despite the current relative calm, Hamas and other terrorist entities may attempt to carry out attacks ahead of Passover.
“The relative calm that we are experiencing at this time is quite deceiving,” he told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last Monday. “It’s misleading and deluding because Hamas and global jihadist infrastructure are working every day in attempting to conduct terrorist attacks in Israeli territory.”
“Our goal is to ensure that the holidays are as quiet as possible,” Argaman added. “We are engaged day and night in thwarting attacks. We have stopped more than 400 potential [attempts] before they materialized into terrorist attacks.”
Noting that 16 civilians and one foreign national were killed last year as a result of terrorist attacks, the Shin Bet chief also spoke of the technological and operational developments related to the Israeli security apparatus to fight against the continued threat of terrorism.
Udi Shaham contributed to this report.