An Arab youth wielding an axe attacked and injured an elderly Jewish man in Jerusalem Monday morning, in what the police described as a nationalistic or terror- motivated attack on Hanevi’im Street, just outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate.

The victim, identified as Nahum Weisfish, suffered light to moderate wounds, including cuts to the head, waist and hands, according to Zaki Heller, a spokesman for Magen David Adom. He was taken to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital for further treatment.

The assailant fled the scene following the attack. Police forces said they were conducting a broad search operation to apprehend the suspect.

According to eyewitnesses, Weisfish struggled with the youth in an attempt to fight him off.

Yitzhak Weiner, an MDA paramedic who treated the victim at the scene, said that Weisfish sustained several wounds and was in shock when the ambulance arrived to treat him.

“He was in shock and extremely scared,” Weiner said.

Weiner added that eyewitnesses at the scene had told the MDA personnel that an Arab youth ran toward the victim, and struck him several times with the axe.

Monday’s attack comes after a similar attack in the capital less than three weeks ago, when a Palestinian teenager named Muhammad Shuman stabbed a 19-year-old female soldier on the capital’s light rail network, seriously wounding her.

In response to an inquiry by The Jerusalem Post about the attacks and further such incidents, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that police officials are assessing the security situation “on an operational and intelligence level in order to prevent future attacks.”

Last week, two Jewish men, one adult and one minor, were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a 20-year-old Arab resident of east Jerusalem with a wooden beam on the light rail network.

The victim was lightly injured. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 04/03/12)