Two 12-year-old Palestinian boys were caught by police in Jerusalem yesterday carrying knives and a suicide note. The boys reportedly planned to use the knives in a stabbing attack in a narrow alley in the Old City.
The children were trying to enter Jerusalem’s Old City when they aroused the suspicion of the Border Police. Body searches revealed that they were carrying three knives, including a meat cleaver.
A “goodbye” note was found in the pocket of one of the boys, with a message to his parents that he was not expecting to survive the planned attack.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian man charged at soldiers at an IDF post with an axe, opposite the Al-Arroub refugee camp in Gush Etzion, the West Bank. The soldiers immediately responded with fire, killing the attacker. The soldier he attacked was unharmed after his helmet deflected the axe-blow.
The terrorist has been identified as Ibrahim Baradiya, a Hamas operative who was released from an Israeli prison.
The attack and attempted attack come during a significant drop in the number of violent incidents in recent weeks. A violent wave of deadly stabbing, car-ramming and shooting attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinians has resulted in the deaths of 30 Israelis and four non-Israelis.
