Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin blamed the Palestine Liberation Organization “or one of the terrorist organizations linked to it” for the stabbing death of an Israeli soldier just outside the Old City walls Saturday afternoon.
The victim, Shlomi Cohen, 20, was wearing civilian clothes. He and a companion were on their way to pray at the Western Wall.
Police, who were holding five suspects Monday, explained there were differences between this assault and past attacks on Jews and non-Jewish tourists in East Jerusalem.
Cohen was the victim of a gang of five attackers who confronted him and his friend. Stabbings in the past have been the work of “lone wolves,” the police pointed out.
The scene of the attack was a paved pathway between David’s Tower and the Zion Gate, a direct route to the Western Wall long considered safe because it bustles with pedestrian traffic and is a favorite it bustles with pedestrian traffic and is a favorite spot for family strolls on a Saturday afternoon.
Most of the previous attacks have been inside the Old City walls or in a neighborhood of Arab small businesses near the Damascus Gate.
The timing also has police puzzled. The attack came when the PLO is trying to improve its image and has supposedly disavowed terrorism.
It occurred on the eve of a general strike called by the underground Palestinian leadership in the administered territories and East Jerusalem.
According to the Israeli authorities, the strike is intended to regenerate enthusiasm for the Palestinian uprising, which, they claim, has been lagging in recent weeks.
The last murder of a Jew in the shadow of the Old City walls occurred a few months before the uprising began in December 1987.
Cohen was stabbed in the heart by one of five Arab youths who jostled him and his companion. The friend tried to fight, but the Arab youths escaped into the Old City’s labyrinth of narrow alleys.
The attack was condemned by Palestinian activist Faisal al-Husseini, a supporter of the PLO who engaged in private talks with some prominent Israeli left and center politicians last week.
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