June 17 (UPI) — An Israeli police officer was stabbed to death in one of two attacks involving knives and guns overnight Friday in Israel’s capital city.
Hadas Malka, 23, was fatally stabbed during one attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City, while another set of attackers opened fire and attempted to stab a group of police officers elsewhere in the area.
A total of three Palestinian attackers, including the one who stabbed Malka, were shot dead by police during the two attacks.
Border police were preparing to respond to reports of gunfire near a holy site in East Jerusalem when two individuals attacked Malka — one with a knife and the other with a homemade submachine gun that jammed and did not fire.
At least three other people were wounded by gunfire and another attacker armed with a knife wounded at least two others before he was shot.
Israeli security services identified the attackers, at least two of whom were between the ages of 18 and 19, as residents of the West Bank.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack stating “soldiers of the caliphate” had launched the “blessed operation … on a gathering of Jews,” but Palestinian groups Hamas and the People’s Front for the Liberation of Palestine said the attackers were their members.
“The three hero martyrs who executed the Jerusalem operation have no connection to Daesh [Islamic State], they are affiliated with the PFLP and Hamas,” Hamas official, Izzat El-Reshiq, said.
