Israeli police kill Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem

Israeli security forces close off Jerusalem's Damascus Gate following an alleged stabbing attack by a Palestinian teenager on April 1, 2017. / AFP / Thomas COEX

JERUSALEM // Israeli paramilitary police officers shot dead a Palestinian teenager on Saturday after he allegedly stabbed three Israelis in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Two ultra-Orthodox Jewish men were wounded by the attacker in the street before he fled into a nearby house where he was caught by border police officers who had given chase, Israeli ploice claimed.

He stabbed one of them before being shot, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

One of the two civilians was stabbed in the upper body and suffered injuries described as moderate. The other man and the border policeman were lightly wounded, Rosenfeld added.

Palestinian websites identified the assailant as 17-year-old Ahmed Ghazal, from the city of Nablus in the northern part of the Israeli occupied West Bank.

A shop owner said he saw Ghazal run inside the house and claimed the Israeli police “could have detained him, but they didn’t want to,” the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.

“We heard four soldiers riddling him with bullets. It was like a battlefield. After they shot him, they came down to the shops, and threatened to break everything if we didn’t shut down,” the shop owner said in a recording shared by the Wadi Hilweh Information Centre.

The incident took place close to the spot where, three days earlier, border police shot and killed a woman who tried to stab officers at Damascus Gate, a heavily guarded entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Palestinian woman, who was the mother of a man killed last year, tried to stab Israeli police with scissors before being shot dead.

At least 242 Palestinians have been killed in Israel and the Palestinian Territories in a period of sporadic violence that began in October 2015 but has tapered off in recent months.

Israeli security forces have been accused of excessive force and summary executions in dealing with the incidents often involving teenage Palestinians using rudeimentary weapon.

Israel says at least 162 of the people killed were Palestinians who launched stabbing, shooting or ramming attacks using vehicles on Israelis before being killed by Israeli security forces. Others died during clashes and protests.

Nearly 40 Israelis have been killed in such incidents since the violence began.

Israel has accused the Palestinian leadership of inciting the violence. The Palestinian Authority denies incitement and charges that in many cases, Israel has used excessive force.

*Reuters