JERUSALEM, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Shin Bet security agency said on Tuesday that a knife attack that injured an Israeli girl on Monday was a terror attack.

The 18-year-old girl, Shuva Malka, was stabbed and critically injured in the northern city of Afula.

A suspect identified as Nur Shunawi, a man in his twenties from the West Bank city of Jenin, was arrested shortly after the attack. He was shot in his legs during the arrest. Police officers who arrived at the scene said he was seen trying to flee and refused to stop when they called him to do so before being shot.

On Tuesday, the Shin Bet said in a statement that the attack was "nationalistically motivated." According to the Shin Bet, Shunawi confessed the attack in his interrogation.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the suspect appeared before the court in Nazareth and his arrest was remanded until Monday as part of the ongoing investigation.

The incident came amidst heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians over the killing of at least 122 Palestinians in Gaza during two-month-long protests near the fence separating between Israel and the besieged Palestinian enclave.