27-Nov-17: Children, knives, sacred places

The alleged knifer is taken into custody this morning [Image Source: Screen grab
from a social media video]

Knives, youths and holy sites; they're a dangerous combination. We have reported here many times on would-be attackers and thwarted attacks, and there's another today from the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron.

Here's what Times of Israel reported:

Border guards arrested a Palestinian teenager on Monday morning, as he tried to dodge security at a checkpoint leading to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron, police said. Suspicious officers asked him to lift his shirt and saw that he was carrying a knife in his pants, police said in a statement that noted the suspect was about 16 years old. A very similar incident took place Sunday afternoon, when police arrested a 17-year-old boy at the same place, trying to do the same thing. In both cases, the youths were attempting to get through to the site, holy to both Jews and Muslims, with a concealed blade... ["Palestinian teen arrested in Hebron with a knife", Times of Israel, November 27, 2017]

Today's thwarted attack happened around 8 this morning, according to this report from Hebrew social media.

They're legally classified as children but their plain intentions and likely ability to kill or seriously injure are clear and obvious.

It seems like just a few weeks that we were writing about essentially the same issues. In fact it was - see "08-Nov-17: Violent non-violence on the road to peace".