Several firebombs were thrown at a border police vehicle in East Jerusalem's A-Tur neighborhood on Wednesday night, mere hours after a convicted killer stabbed a border policeman near Damascus gate in Jerusalem's Old City.

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One of the firebombs hit the border police jeep, setting the vehicle alight. The policemen in the vehicle managed to free themselves, while the fire began spreading to nearby cars.

The border police vehicle after being hit by the firebomb

Vehicle on fire

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One policeman was lightly wounded from smoke inhalation. The fire was reported to be under control soon after the incident.

Firebombs have posed a huge problem for Israeli police and the IDF. Most recently, nine Palestinians were arrested for allegedly throwing Molotov ocktails at a vehicle on Route 20 near Beit Hanina. The men threw three Molotov cocktails at a vehicle on Route 20, moderately wounding a woman and burning the car completely.

The border police vehicle after being hit by the firebomb

The indictment against the group also mentioned them throwing of a Molotov cocktail at a Jewish home in Beit Hanina, wounding two people, and alleged that that the group threw firebombs at the house on three other occasions over the past six months without causing casualties.

Earlier Wednesday a Palestinian man attempted to attack a group of border guards near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.







The guards managed to overpower the Palestinian, who stabbed one of them in the leg, wounding him lightly. The suspect was arrested. The wounded policeman was taken by ambulance to Hadassah Medical Center.

The suspect in the attack is a 56-year-old resident of Hebron, who does not have a permit to enter Israel and was previously He was imprisoned for the murder of Menahem Stern in 1989 during a terror attack in Jerusalem. He was released in 2013 as part of the third round of Palestinian prisoner releases. Stern was a recipient of the Israel Prize for History and was one of the most prominent researchers of the Second Temple period.

Stabbing attacks have been on the rise in Israel for many months. On August 17, a Palestinian was shot dead while attempting a knife attack at Tapuach Junction in the West Bank, while on August 15, two different stabbings occurred in the West Bank.