A security camera caught the dramatic moments Sunday afternoon when Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and his security team apprehended a Palestinian teenager who had just stabbed an Israeli man.

The black-and-white footage shows pedestrians waiting to cross the busy Tzahal Square near City Hall. The Palestinian man pulls out a knife, then stabs his victim from behind.

The wounded Israeli man, Avraham Goldstein, turns and keeps the attacker at bay with his phylactery bag as other passersby scatter.

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Goldstein can then be seen retreating across the intersection as the assailant walks into the street, seemingly pondering his next move.

That’s when Barkat, visible in his white shirt, marches in from the right with his security team. Guns drawn, the bodyguards on both sides of Barkat order the Palestinian man to drop his knife, which he does.

The video then shows Barkat lunging at the attacker and bringing him down with the help of his bodyguards.

The mayor then approaches the victim, who can be seen standing in the intersection, and sits him down on the sidewalk.

The assailant was an 18-year-old Palestinian who was residing illegally in Israel.

Barkat told Channel 2 he was on the way to the municipality headquarters for a meeting when he saw the attack unfold.

Asked whether he had considered that the attacker might injure him, and score a certain propaganda victory, Barkat said he hadn’t given the notion a thought and that he had acted “instinctively.”

It was clear that the assailant was “not going to attack me,” Barkat said. If he had kept on trying to stab people, “he would have been killed.”

צפו: מעצר המחבל הנתעב ע״י ראש העיר ירושלים, ניר ברקת ומאבטחו. השניים הסתייעו לאחר מכן בכוחות משטרה. Posted by 0404 on Sunday, 22 February 2015

The victim was transferred to Hadassah-Ein Kerem Medical Center for treatment.