Two Israelis hurt in Palestinian stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City

Two Border Police officers were stabbed and lightly wounded in a terror attack before dawn Thursday in the Old City of Jerusalem, before shooting dead their assailant, police and medics said.

The male officer was stabbed in the face, near his eye. The female border guard was stabbed in the leg. The attacker, a 26-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank, was shot dead by the officers.

Surveillance footage from the scene, released by police, shows the assailant running up to the officers and rapidly stabbing them with the knife. Prior to the stabbing attack, the assailant was also seen on camera pushing an ultra-Orthodox man to the ground in the alleyways of the Old City.

The weapon was recovered at the scene.

"The terrorist came from the direction of the Damascus Gate, took out a knife, attacked a Jewish man on Hagai Street and tried to stab him, when he failed to do so, he continued running toward a team of border guards - a male and female officer - who were stationed nearby and tried to stab them," police said.

"During a fight with the terrorist, the border guards succeeded in neutralizing him by shooting him," police said in a statement

Security forces and medics arrived at the scene and the two officers were taken to hospitals for further treatment, the Magen David Adom rescue service said.

The female officer was taken to the capital's Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem. She was treated in the trauma center with light injuries, the hospital said.

The male border guard was taken to Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center with stab wounds to the face, the hospital said.

The Old City in Jerusalem has been a frequent site of stabbing attacks by Palestinians in recent years.

The attack followed a night of violence in which Israel forces killed two suspected Palestinian terrorists in separate incidents.

After a two-month manhunt, Israeli forces found and killed a Palestinian man suspected of carrying out a brutal terror attack in which he shot dead two Israeli coworkers in a West Bank factory, the Shin Bet security service said early Thursday.

On October 7, Ashraf Na'alowa, 23, allegedly killed his coworkers Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hajbi at a factory where all three worked in the Barkan Industrial Zone. Another Israeli woman was also injured in the attack.

Na'alowa, from the West Bank village of Shuweika near Tulkarem, remained on the run for over two months, repeatedly eluding capture by Israel security forces. In the interim, a number of his relatives and alleged accomplices have been detained and indicted as part of the manhunt.

Early Thursday morning, Israeli forces tried to arrest him in a joint operation between the IDF, the Shin Bet security services and the Israel police. He was killed during the operation, the Shin Bet said, adding that he was armed.

The army gave no further details on the location of the raid, saying only that he was found following a wide-ranging intelligence effort and that he was planning on carrying out another attack.

Na'alowa was the second suspected terrorist killed in a matter of hours.

Late Wednesday, Israeli forces killed Salih Omar Barghouti who was suspcted of the drive-by shooting attack on a bus stop outside of Ofra on Sunday night, hitting a 30-weeks pregnant woman who was seriously injured. The baby was delivered in an emergency operation, but died earlier Wednesday.  

Barghouti, 29, a resident of Kobar, a village near Ramallah, was killed Wednesday evening after he tried to attack troops while escaping arrest and was shot, the Shin Bet security agency said, adding that he was believed to have carried out the Ofra terror attack.

Hamas later claimed Barghouti as a member, calling the attack "heroic."

Four other people suspected of being involved in the attack were arrested, the Shin Bet said.