Palestinian stabs Jewish man on Shabbat, flees through crowded soccer field

An Arab teenager who stabbed a young Orthodox Jewish man in Jerusalem on Shabbat was shot and wounded by police as he tried to escape through a soccer field where children were playing.

The terror attack occurred in a religious Jewish neighborhood.

After stabbing the man in the back, Mohammad Rajab Abu Qteish, 16, fled the scene on foot and was spotted in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood running toward a soccer field where dozens of Arab children were playing.

Police ordered Abu Qteish to stop, but after he brandished an object – later identified as the knife used in the earlier stabbing – an officer in pursuit shot him, police said.

“I saw him running with an object in his hand and there were a lot of civilians in the area, there was a life-threatening danger to the civilians,” the officer said. “The terrorist then turned in my direction with the object in his hand in order to attack. I felt my life was in danger and fired one shot.”

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said the stabbed victim – in his 20s – was seriously wounded. Abu Qteish is also in serious condition and is being treated at an Israeli hospital in Jerusalem.

One of the soccer coaches who was on the field at the time of the shooting, said when the suspect ran onto the field he called the children to him.

“They were frightened and cried,” the coach said. “There were dozens of children here, from the age of five to 14.”

Abu Qteish is from Anata, a nearby Palestinian town outside of Jerusalem.

Police were attacked with stones and other objects as they went to arrest Abu Qteish’s father and brother, police said, and again as they exited through Shuafat.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions and more frequent attacks in the West Bank and in Jerusalem.

Earlier Saturday, a Palestinian driver slammed into a guard post at a crossing in Samaria, in a suspected ramming attempt. No Israeli personnel were hurt in the incident.