Police foil suspected terrorist who was planning knife attack on bus driver

Suspect told police that he wanted driver to lose control of the vehicle so it would flip over and cause more casualties.

By BEN HARTMAN
Knife and screwdriver found on suspect (photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Knife and screwdriver found on suspect
(photo credit: POLICE SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
Judea and Samaria police say they arrested a Palestinian youth on Wednesday night who was caught carrying a large knife and a screwdriver, planning a terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
A resident of the Binyamin bloc in the West Bank, Amit Lashem, was interviewed by a number of Israeli media outlets on Thursday saying that he reported the young man to police. Leshem said that he pulled up next to the youth at a hitchhiking post on the route to Jerusalem near the settlement of Dolev and the youth answered his confusions in Arabic and appeared to be confused.
Lashem said that he called police and officers from the Modi’in-Illit station came to the scene and arrested the suspect.
On Thursday, Judea and Samaria police said that a police patrol working a traffic junction near Dolev searched a 17-year-old Palestinian man at the hitchhiking post and found him to be carrying a knife and a screwdriver, at which point they detained him and took him for further questioning.
Not long after the questioning began the youth confessed to plotting to hitchhike to Jerusalem and attack a random bus driver.
The youth, a resident of Ramallah, was then handed over to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) for further investigation.
Israel has seen a series of stabbing attacks by Palestinians in recent weeks, including two fatal ones on Monday.