Israeli police: Palestinian killed while attempting to stab officers in Jerusalem

The incident is the latest in three months of violence.

Two Israeli policemen suspected a Palestinian at the Tsahal square near the Old City of Jerusalem, approached him and asked to see his ID, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement. Israeli fire has killed 124 Palestinians, 85 of them said by Israel to be attackers while the rest were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

The other Palestinian who died was a man who was shot by troops in clashes in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said the two Palestinians killed were 17-year-old Mohammed Sabaaneh, and Nur Eddine Sabaaneh, 23, from Qabatia near Jenin in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The ministry said Hani Wahdan, 22, was killed as he was throwing stones near the Nahal Oz crossing point.

The security forces fired stun and smoke grenades toward the demonstrators.

Hours earlier police officers shot dead a Palestinian who tried to stab a policeman near Jerusalem’s walled Old City.

The Israeli rescue service said it took two soldiers to hospital, one moderately wounded and one lightly, but it did not describe their injuries.

Israeli soldiers used live rounds, rubber bullets and teargas on hundreds of Palestinians at the protest.

Near-daily Palestinian attacks have killed 20 Israelis and an American student. The assailant was overpowered by a security guard and arrested, police said.

The attack in Hawara was the fifth stabbing or attempted stabbing of the day. The Palestinians say it is rooted in frustrations stemming from almost five decades of Israeli occupation.

Israel says the unrelenting violence is fanned by a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement.

Tensions have dramatically escalated since the Israeli regime’s imposition of restrictions in August on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem). The site, Islam’s holiest outside Saudi Arabia, is also revered by many Jews as a vestige of their biblical temples.