Palestinian shot dead after stabs officers in Jerusalem: police

A knife-wielding Palestinian stabbed and wounded two Israeli officers in Jerusalem's annexed Old City on Monday before being shot dead by forces at the site, Israeli police said.

"A terrorist arrived at the Cotton Merchant's Gate in Jerusalem's Old City from the Temple Mount armed with a knife and stabbed two officers," a police statement said.

"In response, the officers fired at him and he was neutralised."

It was the second incident of its kind in two days.

Police later confirmed the assailant's death in another statement, identifying him as "a Palestinian from the West Bank in his 20s".

Palestinian sources named him as Abdel Rahman Qassam, 22, from the Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah.

The Israeli officers were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem moderately wounded, medics and police said.

Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev said on Twitter that, "Once again, a disaster was averted thanks to the quick and determined response" of the officers at the scene.

On Sunday, a 19-year-old Palestinian was shot dead after he stabbed and wounded an officer, also in the Old City, police said.

The Old City lies in the Israeli-annexed eastern part of Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state.

Another Palestinian was killed on Sunday in the occupied West Bank, after he attacked Israeli troops with Molotov cocktails, the army said.

Nine other Palestinians have been killed since February 8 in the West Bank. There, as well as in Jerusalem, Palestinian attacks including lone wolf stabbings, are common against Israeli security forces.

Police said the attacker on Monday had come from Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, where violence exploded last May after Israeli police stormed the compound in response to worshippers throwing rocks and explosives.