JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli man was critically injured by gunfire meant to stop an assailant in a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion Junction in the West Bank.

A Palestinian assailant on Wednesday morning stabbed the man, 23, who was then hit by bullets fired by an armed bystander attempting to thwart the attack. The assailant was also hit by the gunfire. Both were taken to a Jerusalem hospital.

Many soldiers and civilians have been attacked at the junction near the Alon Shvut community. In November, American yeshiva student Ezra Schwartz was killed in a terrorist shooting at the site.

Also on Tuesday, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy was identified as the alleged assailant in a February stabbing attack at a market in the Bedouin town of Rahat in which a 65-year-old grandmother was stabbed in the neck.

The alleged assailant was arrested after a four-day manhunt, the Israel Police and Shin Bet said. When caught at his home in the Hebron area, he admitted to the crime and led police to where he had hidden the knife he used in the attack, according to reports.

He had entered Israel illegally and was working at a home in the town at the time of the attack.

Meanwhile, Israel police arrested two Palestinian men in their 40s from eastern Jerusalem who were caught with homemade pipe bombs and other ammunition hidden in their food stand outside of Herod’s Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, which is adjacent to the Muslim Quarter.

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