An Arab terrorist was seriously wounded by his own knife Sunday at 12 noon when he tried to stab a soldier accompanying hundreds of bicyclists near Gush Etzion, all of whom escaped injury.

The cyclists were on the traditional ride from Kiryat Arba-Hevron to Jerusalem to celebrate the 45th Jerusalem Unification Day.

A contingent of soldiers and police escorted the bicycle event, and when the riders reached the Gush Etzion intersection, located a few miles south of Jerusalem, a terrorist appeared with a knife, and lunged at the soldiers.

The soldier nearest the terrorist reacted quickly, preventing him from approaching the cyclists, and during the clash, the terrorist´s knife entered his own stomach, wounding him seriously.

Israeli medics rushed him to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.

The heavily populated area includes Efrat (which has its own municipality), Alon Shvut, Elazar, Neve Daniel, the Har Etzion hesder yeshiva, Ohr Torah institutions and more.

The head of the Gush Etzion Regional Authority, Davidi Perl, responded to the terrorist attempt: "The attempted terrorist attack was planned for the day on which we celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem and the return of Judea and Samaria to Jewish rule - an attack on hundreds of young cyclists and their families. There is no doubt that this attempt, as with all the others that we have witnessed in the past few months, is intended to break the spirit of our nation, but the song of building and the blossoming of Gush Etzion and all of Judea, will go on."

"I am filled with admiration and gratitude to the brave soldier whose alertness prevented a possible tragedy. Our thanks to all the security forces who dealt so efficiently with the incident", he added. (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 05/20/12)