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Itongadol.- Seven people were wounded in a terror attack in central Jerusalem on Friday morning by an assailant who first plowed his car into a crowd and then left it wielding a knife.
The attack took place by the entrance to a Border Police base near the light rail station which serves the Old City\’s Damascus Gate.
The assailant, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras el-Amud, first drove his car onto the pavement and rammed it into a group of Border Patrol soldiers. Upon being shot at by members of the Border Polcie, he left the car wielding a knife – and was then shot and critically wounded.
The seven people wounded in the attack were evacuated to Hadassah Har Hatzofim hospital. Two of them were hospitalized in moderate conditon, and the others with light injuries. Two policewomen are among the wounded.
The assailant was taken to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in critical condition.
The attack took place at virtually the same spot where four months ago a similarly executed attack took the life of a Border Police officer and left 13 people injured.
Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat promised to "keep fighting terrorism," and said that as part of the struggle to "keep to the routine of our daily lives," the capital\’s Purim celebrations would be held as planned.
The municipality\’s central event is slated to take place later in the day at Safra Square, which lies some 200 meters from the scene of the attack.
In Jerusalem, Purim is traditionally celebrated one day later than the rest of Israel, due to its biblical status as a walled city.