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Itongadol.-Two Border Police officers were wounded in a stabbing attack at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem\’s Old City on Friday morning.
According to initial reports, a Palestinian woman at the scene was wounded by shrapnel from gunshots fired in an attempt to neutralize the terrorist.
The suspected terrorist was shot dead. Security forces identified the assailant as a 20-year-old Arab Israeli.
According to police, the knife-wielding assailant attacked a patrol of officers from behind. The security forces then responded with gunfire, shooting and neutralizing the attacker.
Magen David Adom evacuated the victims, one in light condition and one with light-to-moderate wounds, to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital.
Police units responded to the scene and cordoned off the flashpoint area.
Friday\’s attack came after a pair of 14-year-old Palestinians carried out a stabbing attack at a supermarket in the West Bank\’s Binyamin region, killing one off-duty IDF soldier and wounding another civilian.
The Damascus Gate has been the location for many attempted stabbing and terror attacks of late.
“It’s a crossroads where Jews and Arabs meet and a very difficult place to secure that doesn’t really compare to anywhere else,” said an MK for the Yesh Atid party, Mickey Levy, the former commander of the Jerusalem Police, in 2000- 2003
It’s a route for Jews heading to the Western Wall by way of Hagai Street and for Palestinians visiting Muslim holysites on the Temple Mount.
For West Bank Palestinians, it is very often the first place they disembark in the city. It is also a bustling location full of vendors and tourists as well as commuters heading to or from the light rail or the two major streets that border it – Sultan Suleiman and Haneve’im.