JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian teen was fatally shot on Wednesday after stabbing two Israeli border police officers in Jerusalem’s Old City, Israeli police said.
The Israeli police officers were hospitalized, one in moderate condition and another with minor injuries, police said. Private security and police officers shot the teen, identified by police as a 16-year-old from east Jerusalem, and paramedics with the United Hatzalah rescue service pronounced him dead.
Security camera footage of the incident released by police appeared to show the teen attack the officers, who were patrolling near a section of the Via Dolorosa. The assailant appeared to stab one of the officers with a knife, at which point the second officer begins grappling with the attacker, who then is shot by a third person.
Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks targeting Israeli civilians and security personnel in recent years. Palestinians and rights groups contend some of the alleged car-rammings were accidents and accuse Israel of using excessive force.
The incident took place on a main thoroughfare of Jerusalem’s Old City, which is home to holy sites to Christians, Jews and Muslims and is the emotional epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, including the Old City, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move unrecognized by most of the international community.
The Palestinians seek the occupied West Bank and Gaza for a future independent state, with east Jerusalem as its capital.
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