A 16-year-old yeshiva student, Hanoch Albeck, was stabbed in the back with a butcher knife Thursday in Jerusalem’s Old City. He was reported in stable condition and out of danger at Hadassah Medical Center.
Police detained 27 suspects for questioning. They said an initial investigation indicated the attack was random and unprovoked.
Albeck is a student at the Horev yeshiva high school in West Jerusalem. He is the grandson of the former state comptroller, Yitzhak Nebenzahl.
He was assaulted while walking through the spice market in the Moslem quarter of the Old City to his home in the Jewish quarter.
According to his own account, the yeshiva student heard a voice cry in Arabic, “Allah Akhbar” (God is Great), and then felt the knife plunge into his back. But he did not see his assailant.
The youth, crying for help, managed to reach the Jewish quarter about 200 yards away, where a shopkeeper gave him first aid. He was admitted to the hospital with the knife still in his back.
Dr. Oded Zamir, head of the intensive care unit, said the knife entered Albeck’s lung just a few inches from his heart.
The hospital authorities said he was being treated for medium injuries and would be sent home in a few days.
The boy’s mother, Plia Albeck, said she thanked God the injuries were not serious. She is director of the civil law department at the Justice Ministry.
Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem, commenting on the attack, warned the city’s Arab population that “acts like this will hurt them in the end.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
