By Judah Ari Gross and Raoul Wootliff.
Dateline Jerusalem — An Israeli man was critically wounded in a stabbing attack this afternoon, near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron. Israel Police said the terrorist was shot dead by security forces at the scene.
The Magen David Adom rescue service said the victim, a man in his 40s, sustained several stab wounds to the upper part of his body and was evacuated to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Police say the victim arrived at the hospital’s trauma center in severe condition. He was connected to a respirator.
MDA said he was in a stable condition upon arrival at Shaare Zedek, where he was treated for multiple stab wounds to the chest.
MDA paramedic Zaki Yahav said the injured victim was slipping in and out of consciousness when they arrived at the scene.
“We put him in an intensive care ambulance with the aim of getting him to the hospital quickly,” he said.
“We gave him life-saving treatments as we drove, including stopping the bleeding… He is in serious condition.”
Hebron has been a flash point in the recent wave of stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks that has swept the country since October.
On Saturday, an 18-year-old Palestinian woman was arrested close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs after pulling out a knife in a suspected attempt to carry out a stabbing attack.
On Friday an Israeli soldier was lightly injured in a stabbing attack in Hebron. The two Palestinian assailants were shot dead at the scene in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, according to initial reports. They were later identified as Taher Fanun, 19, and Mustafa Fanun, 16, cousins from Hebron.
The only shared city in the West Bank, Hebron has seen constant friction between the community of several hundred settlers and the much larger Palestinian population.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs, shared by Jews and Muslims who both revere it as the final resting place of the Biblical Abraham and his kin, has been a particular source of tension in the city.
