Three Palestinian teenagers will be charged for seriously wounding an Israeli man in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem last month.
The Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) released a joint statement on Wednesday with the conclusions of an investigation into the July 20 stabbing in the capital’s southern Gilo neighborhood.
According to the probe, three Palestinians aged 17 to 19 from nearby Bethlehem in Judea got together on the day of the attack and brought three “large butcher knives” to the neighborhood “with the aim of murdering a Jew and becoming martyrs.”
They drove on a dirt road from the mostly Christian Palestinian town of Beit Jala and then continued on foot. Upon their arrival in Gilo, they concealed the knives and searched for a Jewish victim.
“The terrorists met a young local resident on the street. After they addressed him and they realized from his response that he was indeed a Jew, they brutally stabbed him several times,” the joint statement said.
The trio then fled back towards Bethlehem.
One of the knives remained lodged in the back of the victim—25-year-old Or Sayer. Another knife was found at the scene and the third remained with the attackers.
The IDF took the suspects into custody in Bethlehem less than two days later. An indictment is expected to be filed in the coming days and their custody was extended another four days until Aug. 11.
Sayar is still undergoing treatment at Shaare Zedek Medical Center where he was admitted in serious condition and taken into surgery following the attack.