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Resources updated Tuesday, November 20, 2018

November 20, 2018

Belgian police attend the scene

Witnesses heard the knife-wielding attacker screamed "allahu akbar" as he threw himself at two policemen, according to local newspaper La Derniere. The attack took place in front of a city centre police station a short walk from the Belgian capital's Grand place, a world renowned tourist attraction. The attacker wounded one police officer outside the city's main police station on Rue du Marché au Charbon at around 5.30am local time on Tuesday morning, Ilse Van De Keere, a police spokesman, said.

The suspect was shot and wounded by another officer, she added.

Ms Van De Keere said there are no current confirmation of the attack being a terror incident and investigations are going. Police would not confirm witness reports the suspect said "Allahu Akbar" when he attacked.

She said: "A police officer was stabbed and slightly wounded.

"His colleagues retaliated by firing shots at the attack who was subdued."

The police officer was rushed to hospital but she confirmed the attacker's injuries are not life threatening, adding: "It is too early to say now what the motives of the attacker is.

"The investigation is underway."

Belgian justice minister Koen Geens also announced investigators were looking at all possible motivations including links to extremist groups but that there were no clear indications as yet.

According to reports by Belgian news website RTL, the attacker may have recently been sectioned.

Interior minister Jan Jambon wrote on Twitter: "The police are once again the victim of a cowardly attack."

During a radio interview, he said: "The perpetrator is not known in any database."

The suspect was not known to have linked to terrorism but is known to Belgian courts of weapons trafficking, according to La Derniere.

The mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close, wrote on Twitter: "All my support to the police officer injured in the line of duty and the police intervened to neutralise the attacker.

"Every day, police men and women in the country ensure the safety of our fellow citizens and deserve more than ever our respect and support."

Belgium has been under heightened security since the March 2016 attacks at Brussels' airport and subway that left 32 people dead, although the national threat level was reduced to two from three on a four-point scale in January.

French President Emmanuel Macron is due to visit the Brussels district of Molenbeek, home of the ISIS jihadists who carried out the 2015 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead.

Brussels Attack: Terror As Police Officer Stabbed By Knifeman 'Screaming Allahu Akbar' Document

An Israeli ambulance (File photo)

A Palestinian suspected of stabbing a man in the face south of Jerusalem turned himself in to Israeli authorities Tuesday evening.

Border Police said the alleged assailant surrendered himself to officers at the Rachel checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The man, in his 20s and from the nearby village Dheisheh, was taken for interrogation where Border Police said they will "ascertain with certainty" the motives of the attacker.

Authorities said that the nature of the attack had initially been unclear, but that the growing conclusion was that it was a nationalistically motivated terror attack.

The incident occurred near the bypass tunnel next to the Palestinian town of Beit Jala, northwest of Bethlehem.

Eyewitnesses said the Israeli man was attacked when he walked out of a store in the area, according to one of the medics who treated the victim.

Video footage from the scene showed the man exiting the shop and approaching his car before the Palestinian runs up behind him and begins stabbing him.

The 30-year-old victim was treated on the scene by medics from the Magen David Adom ambulance service and the Israel Defense Forces, who worked to stop the bleeding and bandage his wounds.

He was then transported to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem where he was subsequently released.

Attacker dies week after Armon Hanatziv stabbing

Also Tuesday, a Shaare Zedek Medical Center spokesman said that the Palestinian assailant who injured four officers in a stabbing attack last week at a police station in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood had succumbed to his wounds.

Abdul Rahman Abu Jamal, 17, from Jabel Mukaber, had been shot and seriously injured by Israeli forces after arrived at the entrance to the police station Wednesday and attacking and lightly injuring three officers.

During the scuffle a fourth officer was lightly hurt by shrapnel as others shot at the attacker.

The Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, some of which is in former no-man's land between East and West Jerusalem, has been the scene of several attacks in past years, including during a wave of stabbings in 2015 and 2016.

Israeli man injured in Palestinian terror stabbing Document