A security guard, 25, was lightly wounded after he was stabbed by two 13-year-old Arab girls in the central Israeli city of Ramle.
Police said the attack appeared to be nationalistically motivated.
Police said the two suspects, both minors said by police to be around 13 years old from Ramle’s Jawarish neighborhood, were arrested with knives in their possession. One was carrying a school backpack, a police spokesperson noted.
The stabbing took place at the central bus station located in the center of the working class city. The building also houses a mall and government offices.
Police are searching the attackers’ family homes in Jawarish, according to residents.
An initial police investigation found that the two girls approached the bus station’s entrance, where the guard asked them to identify themselves. They pulled kitchen knives out of their clothing and stabbed him in the leg and hand.
A soldier and an armed civilian quickly subdued the two. They were detained and taken to Ramle Police headquarters for questioning.
Magen David Adom rescue service medics treated the victim, and he was taken to the nearby Assaf Harofe Hospital with light injuries.
A medic who happened to be at the bus station said he ran over after hearing shouts of “terrorist.”
“I saw a young man, about 25, fully conscious and upset, with several stab wounds in his extremities. I gave him initial medical care, and in a few minutes ambulances arrived and took him to the hospital,” the medic said.
The stabbing was the latest in a series of attacks that have roiled the country over the last several months.
{Matzav.com Israel}
The attackers should have both been eliminated.