Jewish man stabbed in apparent militant attack in Jerusalem

A Jewish man was stabbed in Jerusalem Sunday evening in an apparent militant attack, police said.

The victim, in his early thirties, was stabbed in the back by a screwdriver and suffered moderate wounds on Hanevi'im street in central Jerusalem, Xinhua quoted police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld as saying. The victim was taken to the Sha'are Tzedek Medical Centre in the city.

Rosenfeld said the man was able to walk after the stabbing and reached a nearby border guard patrol, reporting the attack. The police believe the assailant to be an Arab and that he ran towards the Damascus Gate in the city. Efforts were on to arrest him.

Mounting tensions between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem have spread out to different parts of Israel, and several violent attacks occurred. Among others, a Palestinian militant killed a soldier in Tel Aviv last Monday and a woman was stabbed to death in a West Bank settlement that same day.

The tensions stem, among others, from the continued Jewish settlement expansion in east Jerusalem, on territories Israel annexed in the 1967 Mideast War, home to more than 300,000 Palestinians, as well as clashes over the status quo of the Temple Mount religious compound, holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Other factors that triggered the current instability include Israel's latest campaign against Gaza and collapse of the peace talks in April, as well as the killing and kidnapping of a 15-year-old Palestinian by Jewish extremists in July, following the abduction and killing of three Jewish teens by Palestinian militants in the West Bank in June.