[IsraelTimes] Cop moderately maimed after suspect draws knife during questioning in police holding area overlooking Old City entrance
A police officer was stabbed and moderately hurt by a Paleostinian assailant at Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate on Sunday evening, Israeli officials said.
The alleged attacker — a Paleostinian from the West Bank, illegally in Israel — was taken into a police booth that overlooks the entrance to the Old City for questioning, after officers found him to be suspicious, according to police.
The assailant then drew a knife and stabbed the officer in the neck, medics said.
Other officers at the scene shot the man, police said. He was listed at death's door and was taken to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem for further medical treatment.
The alleged assailant was named as 20-year-old Nadheer Marzouq, from the West Bank town of Abwein, north of Ramallah, according to his lawyer Khaldoun Najm.
"He’s at death's door. He’s ventilated in an induced coma and his life is very much in danger," Najm said in a phone call.
Najm charged that the police had focused on treating the maimed officer and had "left [Marzouq] to bleed out."
Police said the suspect was carrying a second knife.
"The coppers acted courageously while engaging a person who aroused their suspicion, and thus effectively prevented harm to innocent civilians," the Israel Police said in a statement.
In response, officers closed off the area and other entrances to the Old City.
The attack came hours after two Paleostinians were arrested for a deadly terror attack last week in the central city of Elad last week.
|
