They were three boys from Jerusalem. One was a seventh grader riding his bicycle in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood in the city. The other two were residents of the adjacent Beit Hanina. All of them were presumably occupied with who came to class today, where their friends were hanging out, maybe their first love. And still, there was one major difference between them, a difference as sharp as a knife: The boys from Beit Hanina decided to stab their neighbor, a boy who could have been their classmate. It happened at 3:15 p.m. Monday, an hour after a female terrorist stabbed a border policeman near Jerusalem's Ammunition Hill. The results were horrendous. A 13-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man were seriously injured in a stabbing attack perpetrated by two young boys. The terrorists, relatives aged 13 and 15, were neutralized by Israeli security forces. The older one was killed and the younger was evacuated to hospital in serious condition. The two terrorists, armed with knives, went to Pisgat Zeev and searched for victims. According to eyewitness reports, they entered one of the shops and asked the shopkeeper a question in Arabic. He answered them in their tongue, proving that he, too, was Arab. The terrorists then left the store. They then identified and pounced on their first victim, the 20-year-old, who was walking by. Looking for additional victims, they turned onto a main street. The victim managed to follow them and stop a bus. "We noticed a young man running toward the bus, visibly hurt," said Michal, 17, a passenger on the bus and a volunteer with the MDA emergency medical service. "People asked the driver to stop and open the doors. The victim got on and lay down. There were children there and people were freaked out. I asked a friend to call MDA and I went to him to offer assistance. Two passengers stopped the bleeding and I treated him with the help of a paramedic on the phone who told me what to do." The terrorists, meanwhile, found a second victim: A 13-year-old boy leaving a candy store and getting on his bicycle. One of them stabbed him multiple times. "It was really frightening," said an eyewitness. "He ran with a huge knife and stabbed a child who was leaving the candy store." A civilian who witnessed the attack began running toward the terrorists wielding a stick. The boys fled. "I heard someone say 'Mommy' and saw the two terrorists with knives," he said. "I ran after one of them and people yelled out to me that another one was behind me. I turned around and he waved his knife at me. I stood in front of him with my stick and he managed to get away. He ran to the street and was hit by a car. The knife was knocked out of his hand. I hit him over the head and neutralized him." The candy store owner said the victim was a sweet boy who visited the candy store every day. A paramedic at the scene described the situation: "There was a lot of confusion. People took us to the store and the boy was unconscious, with a stab wound to the upper body. We administered first aid and rushed him to the hospital." The second terrorist was shot when he lunged at security forces with his knife. "Unfortunately, there is no end to the viciousness of these despicable murderers, who victimize children and innocent civilians. This vicious, merciless terror is a result fallacious incitement and fanning of the flames, forcing us to take resolute action against the inciters as well," Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said. Later Monday, around 8:30 p.m., a terrorist boarded the No. 185 bus to Jerusalem. The terrorist stabbed a soldier and tried to snatch his weapon. As police officers struggled with the attacker, he tried to snatch a police weapon as well. Ultimately, the terrorist was shot and killed. The initial investigation revealed that the terrorist had boarded the bus with a concealed knife and had taken a seat in the back. After identifying an armed soldier, he pounced on him, yelling, "Allahu akbar!" The soldier was wounded in the face, but continued to fight his attacker, refusing to let him take the gun. A policeman heard the soldier's cries for help and ran toward him. "I saw that the terrorist dropped the knife and tried to pin him to the ground," the policeman said. Two additional civilians joined the struggle, but the terrorist was determined and did not let go of the soldier's gun, which was still held to the soldier's neck with a strap. "We saw them fighting with the terrorist and he wouldn't stop trying to take the soldier's gun," said a female passenger. "It was very frightening. We were scared that the terrorist would take the gun and start shooting on the bus. We screamed to the driver to open the doors and let us off." A resident of the city, Yair Ben Shabat, said Monday that when he saw the disturbance on the bus, "I took my nunchucks out of my bag and jumped onto the bus. I found his back and used those things. It helped and messed up his back pretty bad." Earlier on Monday, a terrorist approached a border policeman in Jerusalem's Old City and tried to stab him, hitting his protective vest and failing to harm him. The terrorist was shot and killed.
