British student in early 20s fatally stabbed on a train in Jerusalem

Palestinian man with mental health issues apprehended.

JERUSALEM — A British student in her early 20s was stabbed to death on Friday on a Jerusalem commuter train, a rare attack on a tourist, during a busy week of religious observances in the city.

The attacker was identifified by offifficials as a 57-year-old Palestinian man with a history of mental illness.

The attack took place after noon as the train passed near the Old City, packed with Christians observing Good Friday, Jews observing Passover and Muslims in weekly Friday prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, police said.

The man pulled a knife from his bag and stabbed the woman several times in the chest, police said. She was pronounced dead soon after she arrived at Hadassah Medical Center.

An offffffffffff-duty police offifficer in the same car pulled the emergency brake, disarmed the attacker, and with the help of another passenger, subdued the assailant, the Israeli police said.

Hebrew University identifified the student as Hannah Bladon, part of an exchange from the University of Birmingham. The universit y said she was part of a semester-long program that began in January.

“The university condemns such acts of terror that harm innocent people, and especially a student who came to Jerusalem to study and widen her academic horizons,” a universit y state - ment said.

Though numbers vary, nearly 40 Israelis have been killed in a wave of attacks by Palestinians, largely stabbings and ramming by vehicles, since 2015. Palestinian offifficials have reported more than 250 Palestinians killed during the same period — most, according to Israel, while carrying out attacks or trying to.

Bladon appears to be the third visitor killed in that period. The other two were American.

I s r a e l i of f i c i a l s i dent i fified the assailant as Gamil Tamimi, of East Jerusalem. They said he was recently released from a psychiatric hospital, where he had tried to commit suicide by swallowing a razor blade. They said he was convicted in 2011 of sexually assaulting his daughter.

Two other people were slightly wounded in the train episode, including a pregnant woman hurt when the train stopped abruptly, medical offifficials said.

Tourists interviewed at the Old City expressed sadness but said they visited Jerusalem — on high alert during the holidays, with an expanded police presence — understanding the risks of the continuing conflflict, now at a relatively low level.

“Yo u c a me t o a p l a c e knowing there is terrorism,” said Jos Vranken, a religion teacher from Belgium. “But you don’t feel unsafe.”

If you are from Europe, on the other hand, there is so much terrorism, you get used to it,” he added.