Jerusalem: Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian in annexed East Jerusalem on Monday after he stabbed and injured an Israeli border police officer, Israeli police said.
The police said in a statement that the suspect approached the police officer outside a gas station in the neighborhood of Sheik Jarah, stabbed him, and seized his weapons, Xinhua news agency reported.
“He attempted to shoot but was unsuccessful and then fled the scene,” said the police, adding other nearby border police officers chased the stabber and shot him dead, Xinhua news agency reported.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said in a statement that the Israeli officer sustained serious injuries and had been taken to a hospital.
The incident came amid a major armed escalation in the region, including a three-week-long war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border.
There has been an increase in violence in the occupied West Bank as well, with the official Palestinian news agency of WAFA reporting that 115 Palestinians have been killed there in clashes with Israeli forces and settlers since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
–IANS