A firebomb was thrown Saturday night at an apartment balcony in southeast Jerusalem in what police are calling a terrorist attack.
Fire broke out on the balcony at the building located on Meir Nakar Street in the Armon HaNatziv (East Talpiot) neighborhood. It was extinguished quickly. No injuries were reported but the balcony itself was damaged.
Fire and Rescue Services arrived at the scene to limit the damage of the attack. Meanwhile police and Border Patrol officers began searching nearby in Jabel Mukaber, a Jerusalem Arab neighborhood, in an attempt to locate suspects.
Marcel Kornicher, one of the building's tenants, said that he and his wife were sitting in their living room when the incident occurred.
"My wife suddenly saw fire and we had no idea why," he told Ynet. "We heard a boom which was extremely frightening. We were in shock. The bomb did not penetrate the apartment, but if it had gotten into our house, it could have set the house on fire. We saw what kind of damage firebombs can do last week."
Kornicher added that stones had been thrown at their building multiple times from Jabel Mukaber. Two months ago, a firework was also thrown at the house.
Meir Nakar Street is directly adjacent to the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood, which has been the scene of numerous stone throwing incidents and firebomb attacks. The terrorists who committed the Har Nof and Merkaz HaRav massacres were from Jabel Mukaber.
Residents of Meir Nakar Street have suffered similar violent events for a long period of time, Jerusalem firefighting services stated, noting that this is not the first firebomb attack on apartment buildings in the area and in nearby Abu Tor.
Firefighting commander Roy Ben Ezra told Ynet "we were alerted to the scene to deal with a fire on a residential balcony. When we arrived the fire had already died out and all we did was clear the area from smoke and the smolder that had remained."
"Luckily, the event ended without injuries, because last week's events have shown us what a firebomb can do," he concluded, referencing the recent terrorist attack in Samaria Thursday night.
Ayala Shapira, 11, was seriously injured after two Palestinian terrorists threw a firebomb at the car she and her father were driving in on a service road between Maale Shomron and new community El-Matan. She sustained third degree burns on 40% of her body and is on a respirator due to smoke inhalation.