Israeli stabbed in Jerusalem, suspect flees on foot

JERUSALEM: An Israeli woman was stabbed and seriously wounded in a tense neighborhood in east Jerusalem on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, and the suspect fled, Israeli police said.

The Magen David Adom emergency service said the 30-year-old woman was taken to hospital in severe condition.

The stabbing took place in Sheikh Jarrah, where several Palestinian extended families are at risk of being evicted by Jewish settlers amid a decades-long legal battle. Protests and clashes with police there last spring helped ignite the 11-day Gaza war.

Sirens could be heard echoing across the neighborhood as traffic was heavy with morning commuters.

The attack came days after a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli man and tried to stab a member of the paramilitary Border Police just outside Jerusalem's Old City, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Sheikh Jarrah. The Border Police shot and killed the attacker.

Last month, a Hamas militant opened fire in Jerusalem's Old City, killing one Israeli and wounding four others before being fatally shot by police.

Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City and major holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. It considers the entire city its unified capital.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. The city's fate was one of the thorniest issues in peace talks that ground to a halt more than a decade ago.