2 shot in Israel ‘terror’ attacks

Israeli policemen cover the body of a Palestinian assailant who was shot dead at the entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. (Photo: AFP)

Two Palestinians rammed a car into a bus stop used by Israelis in the occupied West Bank on Friday causing injuries before troops killed one of the assailants, the army said.

The attack came shortly after Israeli police said they shot dead a Palestinian who tried to stab police officers in annexed east Jerusalem.

“Two assailants rammed a vehicle into a civilian bus stop at the Elias junction near the community of Kiryat Arba,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

It said three people were wounded.

“Forces at the scene fired at the vehicle resulting in the death of one of the assailants while the other was wounded,” the army said.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the dead suspect as Fares Khadour.

Kiryat Arba is an Israeli settlement in the southern West Bank close to the flashpoint Palestinian city of Hebron.

It was the second violent incident on Friday, after a 28-year-old man was shot dead in Jerusalem while attempting to stab police officers.

That attack came at the Damascus Gate entrance to east Jerusalem’s tourist-heavy Old City, the main entrance for Palestinians.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the assailant in Jerusalem “was running towards police officers with a knife in his hand and was shot and killed”.

He said another knife was found in his possession and that no police officers had been hurt.

Palestinian leaders say assailants have acted out of desperation over the collapse of peace talks in 2014 and Israeli settlement expansion in Israeli-occupied territory thatPalestinians seek for an independent state.

Israel says anti-Israeli incitement by Palestinian officials and on social networks have stoked attacks.

Violence since October has killed 227 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Eritrean and a Sudanese.

Israeli forces say most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. Others were shot dead during protests and clashes.

At least 212 Palestinians have died in violent incidents since October in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — 141 of them identified by authorities as assailants. Palestinians, many of them acting alone and with rudimentaryweapons, have killed at least 33 Israelis and two visiting Americans in attacks that have waned in recent months.