Europe 1 with AFP 10:48 a.m., November 06, 2023

A 20-year-old female soldier was wounded by a knife-wielding Palestinian assailant outside a police station in East Jerusalem. The man was neutralized by the gunfire of the border police.

An Israeli soldier was seriously wounded Monday in a stabbing attack outside a police station in annexed East Jerusalem by an assailant who was killed, Israel Police said. "A terrorist armed with a knife arrived at the Shalem police station and stabbed a female soldier... Border police forces neutralized the terrorist by firing," the police said in a statement.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it had taken care of the 20-year-old injured woman, as well as another 20-year-old with minor injuries. According to Israeli police, the attacker is a young Palestinian from al-Issawiyah, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem occupied by Israel since 1967. Another "suspect" in connection with the attack was arrested near the scene, the source added.

Recurrent tensions

The area of the attack, which took place near Damascus Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City, remains cordoned off and Israeli police chief Yaakov Shabtai has visited the area. On 12 October, a Palestinian from East Jerusalem opened fire at the same location, wounding two soldiers, before being killed. And on October 30, a Palestinian man from East Jerusalem was killed after stabbing and wounding an Israeli policeman outside a nearby gas station.

Since the beginning of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, which began on 7 October with an unprecedented deadly attack by the Islamist movement on Israeli soil, tensions have been high in East Jerusalem, which includes the Old City, which is deserted by tourists.

"Our police officers have been on the front line for a month," said Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who called for "zero tolerance" and called for the attacker's house to be destroyed. In the occupied West Bank, at least 150 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.