Israeli security forces arrested three Palestinians in connection with a stabbing attack of two elderly Israeli women in Jerusalem earlier this month, the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) cleared for publication Monday.
Palestinian terrorists, in their teens, stabbed and moderately wounded two elderly Israeli women while on their morning walk at Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv promenade on May 10.
The victims, approximately 80 years old, were walking with three other women when they were assaulted from behind by two masked Palestinian terrorists. The victims sustained moderate stab wounds to their upper bodies.
Israeli security forces arrested two suspects, aged 16 and 17 and residents of the adjacent Jabel-Mukaber neighborhood, who confessed to premeditated plans, which were discussed at times on Facebook.
They chose the group of elderly women as a target and attacked them with a knife and an ax.
After the attack, one of them ran home and the second fled to school. They dropped their weapons after the attack, and later one of them returned to collect them.
A third Palestinian minor, also in his teens, was arrested for being a member of the cell and planning the attack. He planned to carry out another stabbing attack if his colleagues would have been shot and killed in the process of the attack.
One of the suspects’ mother was arrested last week at a checkpoint in Jerusalem on suspicion that she planned to attack security forces present at the site.
“The Shin Bet and security forces will continue to use any means at their disposal to thwart terror attacks that threaten the safety and security of Israel’s residents,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.
The Armon Hanatziv neighborhood is situated adjacent to Palestinian neighborhoods and has been the site of several terror attacks, some of them lethal.
In October, two Palestinian terrorists boarded a bus in that area and shot and stabbed passengers, murdering Alon Gobeberg, Haim Haviv and Richard Lakin, who also had American citizenship, before being shot dead by security forces. Another 17 Israelis were wounded in the attack.
By: Max Gelber, United with Israel