Jerusalem Seminary Student Stabbed

JERUSALEM — A 16-year-old Jewish seminary student walking through Jerusalem’s walled Old City on Thursday was stabbed in the back by an Arab, police said. Authorities said they rounded up 27 suspects.

In the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where a Palestinian rebellion began Dec. 9, the army lifted curfews on eight villages and refugee camps. Curfews remained in effect on Idna village and the Dheishe refugee camp in the West Bank.

The victim’s mother said her son told her the assailant shouted “Allahu Akhbar!” (God is great!) as he plunged in the knife.

Chanoch Albeck was wearing a black skullcap and was in the Old City’s Muslim sector when the attack occurred. Two other students helped him to the nearby Jewish quarter, where he was given first aid and taken to a hospital with the knife still in his back.

Justice Ministry officials said his mother, Plea Albeck, is a government lawyer who has handled cases of land confiscation in the occupied territories, but they said they believed it was a random attack.

Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem issued a statement saying he was “shocked and disgusted.”