Two 13-year-old Arab-Israeli girls stab security guard

Two Arab-Israeli teenage girls stabbed a security guard near the Ramle central bus station, police said.

The girls, 13, reportedly pulled kitchen knives out of a school backpack and began stabbing the guard, 27, when he asked them for identification. He was taken to a nearby hospital with stab wounds in his hand and leg.

A soldier and a civilian reportedly subdued the teens and held them until police arrived to arrest them and take them for questioning.

Ramle is a mixed Arab-Jewish city in central Israel. The teens reportedly are from Jawarish, an Arab-Israeli village located about three miles southwest of Ramle.

Ramle Mayor Yoel Lavi called the attack “uncharacteristic of the Arab sector in Ramle,” Ynet reported. He added: “Ramle is a multicultural city in which people live in coexistence and in good neighborly relations, Jews alongside Arabs.”

Initial news reports called the attack nationally motivated. The teens reportedly said during questioning that they carried out the attack as “revenge for the situation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”