Two elderly Israeli women were reportedly stabbed in an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, Israeli police said.
Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Samri said in a statement that five elderly Israelis were hiking in a park in the settlement of East Talpiot on Tuesday morning when they were attacked by two masked individuals who fled the scene.
A spokeswoman for the Shaare Zedek Medical Center said that two women in their 80s were being treated in the trauma unit, with one suffering from wounds in the upper back. She added that both were in moderate but stable condition.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld later reported that two suspects were later detained in the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir, and that Israeli forces were still searching the area.
More than 200 Palestinians and almost 30 Israelis have been killed since October, although the number of Palestinian and Israeli deaths saw a dramatic drop over the last two months, with Israeli leadership suggesting its severe security measures were responsible for the emerging trend.
However, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found in a poll last month that support for stabbing attacks had seen a decline in the West Bank in recent months -- "due, it seems, to a rising perception in its inefficacy."
