Border Police officers were able to foil a terrorist attack at the Ras checkpoint in northern Jerusalem on Thursday evening.

Officers at the checkpoint noticed a 17-year-old Palestinian Arab approaching them in a suspicious manner and called on him to stop, but he continued to move toward them.

The teen terrorist then pulled out a knife and the officers cocked their weapons. The terrorist then dropped the knife from his hand before he was arrested and taken in for questioning.

The terrorist admitted during interrogation that he intended to carry out a stabbing attack.

The checkpoint commander, Fares Faleh said, “We are ready and trained for such incidents. Luckily, the response of the team at the checkpoint was rapid and professional so that the terrorist was unable to realize his intentions.”

The attack came just one week after Border Police officers foiled a planned stabbing attack near Hevron.

In that incident as well, the officers noticed a terrorist behaving suspiciously before discovering a knife in his possession and arresting him.

Sources in the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) last week admitted that a terror cell appears to be at large in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem, although they did not say if the cell had any connection to Hamas.