A Jewish resident of Jerusalem was stabbed in the back on Sunday evening, apparently with a screwdriver.

Police are treating the incident as a possible terrorist attack.

The man, aged about 35, was stabbed near the Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem's Old City. He fled the scene of the attack and only stopped when he encountered a Border Police patrol in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.

The Border Police accompanied him to the police station near the Western Wall, where he was treated by Magen David Adom paramedics before being taken by ambulance to Shaare Zedek hospital.

His condition was described as moderate later on Sunday night.

"He arrived with a wound in the upper back," said the hospital's deputy director Dr. Ofer Merrin. "The wound was not serious, according to our initial examination. As things stand right now, his life is not in danger."

Open gallery view Stabbing victim being evacuated to hospital, Jerusalem, November 16, 2014. Credit: MDA Spokesman

The assailant was described as an Arab man who was seen running toward Damascus Gate. The Jerusalem police initiated wide-scale searches and erected roadblocks in an attempt to capture him.

Sunday's attack followed several days of relative calm in the capital, following the violence of the last few weeks.

Friday, the Muslim prayer day, was the quietest day the city had seen in several weeks. In contrast to previous Fridays, police did not impose age restrictions on Muslims entering the Temple Mount and the crowd dispersed peacefully after prayers, without any violent incidents.

That said, there were random clashes between police and Palestinian youths in the city's Arab neighborhoods on the weekend. The Palestinians reported a number of casualties, including two youths injured by the sponge balls used by police during a clash in Abu Tor on Saturday night..

Palestinians stoned the light rail in Shuefat on Sunday morning,, causing damage but no injuries.

Last week an IDF soldier, Almog Shiloni, 20, of Modi'in, was stabbed by an 18-year-old Palestinian from Nablus near Tel Aviv's central bus station. Shiloni was hospitalized in critical condition and died from his wounds shortly thereafter. The stabber, Nur A-Din Hashia - who was himself lightly wounded in the incident – escaped the scene of the assault and was arrested by police officers while hiding in a nearby building soon after.

Several hours after that attack, another one took place near the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Elon Shvut. Dalia Lemkos, a 26-year-old resident of the settlement, was killed and two others were wounded after an assailant exited the vehicle he was driving in and commenced stabbing a crowd of people waiting at a designated hitch-hiking spot.

A 26-year-old man suffered light-to-moderate wounds to the abdomen, and a 50-year-old man was stabbed in the face, and listed in light-to-moderate condition as well. A guard at the entrance to the settlement shot and wounded the suspect on the spot, a junction just west of the settlement entrance.

The Shin Bet named the suspect as Maher Hamdi A-Shalmon, 30, a resident of Hebron affiliated with the Islamic Jihad. Hashalmon was jailed in an Israeli prison from 2000-2005 after throwing a firebomb at Israeli troops.