A Palestinian terrorist stabbed a 41-year-old man on a bus with a screwdriver in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot on Tuesday before he was shot by a bystander, the Israel Police said. The bus driver stopped on the side of the road and the passengers fled.
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An armed civilian shot the suspected terrorist, Ismail Nimer, 44, before authorities arrived on the scene. According to the authorities, Nimer was in Israel on a work permit and had no prior security-related offenses.
"I got out of the car, loaded my gun, and realized it was a terror attack. The stabber came to me; I did not hesitate and fired one bullet at him. I heard him praying in Arabic," Meshi Ben Ami said.
Paramedics found the victim lying on the sidewalk next to the bus, conscious but bleeding from his upper body. He was provided with life-saving medical care and evacuated to an intensive care unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, paramedics said.
He was suffering from several stab wounds to his upper body, but is in stable condition now, hospital spokesman Yossi Gottesman said.
The suspected terrorist was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Police said initial reports indicated the attack was nationalistically motivated but gave no further details.
"I would like to wish a speedy recovery to the man who was wounded in the stabbing incident in Jerusalem," Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted.
"We will not allow terrorism to raise its head and disrupt our daily routine. We will get to anyone who tries to harm innocent civilians," he added.
Gaza's ruling terrorist group Hamas praised the attack, calling it a "natural response against Israel's crimes in Jerusalem" and proof of the failure of efforts to eliminate Palestinian resistance.
Earlier Tuesday, Israeli aircraft struck a Hamas military position in the Gaza Strip in response to a gunshot fired into southern Israel from the Palestinian territory earlier in the day, the IDF said.
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In the Gaza airstrike, Palestinian media said the site was struck multiple times by missiles from the air. Earlier Tuesday, a bullet fired from Gaza hit an industrial building in the community of Netiv Haasara, the army added.
There were no reports of injuries in either incident. No one has claimed responsibility for firing the bullet, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all violence originating from Gaza, which has been under the rule of the Islamist group since 2007.
On Saturday, the IDF carried out a series of airstrikes on a Hamas rocket production site in response to rocket fire toward Israel. The rocket attack came hours after US President Joe Biden concluded a three-day trip to Israel and Judea and Samaria, where the Palestinian Authority, Hamas' rival, holds sway in certain areas.
