An Israeli soldier stands guard during the Friday noon prayer along a street in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, on Jan. 26, 2024, as age restrictions have been imposed to access the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. (Credit: Marco Longari/AFP)
Israeli police on Sunday said officers had shot dead a knife-wielding suspect in Jerusalem's Old City, while the military said troops had killed an attacker in the occupied West Bank.
The suspected attacks came with Israel and its security forces on high alert since Hamas's deadly Oct. 7 attack and after a spate of violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last year.
A police spokesman said officers stopped a man for questioning in the Muslim quarter of annexed East Jerusalem's Old City, which houses some of the holiest sites in Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
As the man approached the force, he tried to stab the officers with a knife, the spokesman said in a statement.
"The officers reacted quickly and neutralized the terrorist by shooting," he added.
A passerby was slightly injured by a bullet fragment and taken to hospital for treatment, the spokesman added.
In the West Bank, troops near Bethlehem had shot a man who tried to stab a soldier, the army said.
"The soldiers responded with live fire towards the terrorist, who was neutralized. No IDF (army) injuries were reported," a statement read.
Last year saw a surge in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, prompting an increase in police stop and searches, particularly in East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967.
On Oct. 30, a knife-wielding Palestinian stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli police officer in east Jerusalem before being shot dead.
Another Palestinian man was shot and wounded in the same area on Sept. 21 after stabbing a security guard at a light rail station.
Two weeks before that incident, a Palestinian teenager wielding a meat cleaver wounded two in an attack outside the Old City.
On Dec. 31, two people were injured in a stabbing by a Palestinian near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
Israeli police on Sunday said officers had shot dead a knife-wielding suspect in Jerusalem's Old City, while the military said troops had killed an attacker in the occupied West Bank.
The suspected attacks came with Israel and its security forces on high alert since Hamas's deadly Oct. 7 attack and after a spate of violence linked to the...