JERUSALEM (AA): Israeli police Friday arrested a Palestinian man who allegedly stabbed a female British student – who later succumbed to her wounds — on Jerusalem’s light-rail system, according to a police statement. The assailant is mentally unstable man from East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tied the attack to “global Islamic terrorism.”

“A 25-year-old British tourist was killed after being stabbed near the New Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City,” the statement read.

“The victim, who sustained multiple stab wounds to her chest, later succumbed to her injuries at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center,” it added.

According to the Israeli authorities, the alleged attacker was shot and injured — before being arrested — by police at the scene.

He has been identified as Jamil Tamimi, a 57-year-old Palestinian resident of Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amoud neighborhood.

Israeli police later argued that Tamimi suffered “serious mental health problems,” who was recently released from a psychiatric hospital, according to the police.

Israeli secret service, the Shin Bet, said that Tamimi had tried to commit suicide by swallowing a razorblade while hospitalized. In 2011, he was convicted of molesting his daughter.

“This is yet another case of a Palestinian suffering from personal, mental or moral distress choosing to commit an act of terror to escape his problems,” the Shin Bet said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tied the attack to global terrorism. “Radical Islamic terrorism is striking world capitals. Regretfully, terrorism struck today in Israel’s capital – Jerusalem,” he said.

Israeli media added that, while one woman in her twenties was injured with a knife, two other Israelis, including a pregnant woman in her thirties and a man in his fifties, were indirectly injured when the train came to a sudden stop in the midst of the attack

According to Palestinian figures, within the last year and a half, more than 270 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli police either during — or immediately after — alleged attacks on Israelis or in clashes with Israeli security forces.

The Israeli authorities, for their part, say at least 48 Israelis have been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians over the same period.

Additional report by The Muslim News

[Photo: Israeli health team workers arrive at site to treat the wounded British tourist after he was attacked with a knife at a tramway in Jerusalem on April 14, 2017. Photographer: Muhabiri Mostafa Alkharouf/AA]