Israeli police said a Palestinian man fatally stabbed two Israelis as they walked in Jerusalem’s Old City and seriously injured a woman and a toddler before he was shot and killed by an officer on duty.

Jerusalem police chief Moshe Edri said the Palestinian stabbed an Israeli man, his wife and the child multiple times in an alley near the al-Aqsa Mosque compound before stabbing another man. Both Israeli men died of their wounds, he said,

The mother and child were hospitalized late Saturday, with authorities describing the woman in serious condition and the child slightly wounded.

A police spokeswoman said the attacker, later identified as Mohannad Hallabi, 19, of the West Bank, took a gun from one of his victims and opened fire on police and nearby tourists before being killed.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said the attacker was a member.

Saturday’s attack came two days after an Israeli couple and their four children were shot dead in the occupied West Bank.

Recent clashes at the al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem have seen Palestinian protesters throwing stones and firebombs at non-Muslims, who are allowed under Israeli law to visit the site.

Israel captured the territory, along with the West Bank, from Jordan in the 1967 war.  Palestinians claim the territory as the capital of their future state.

Earlier Saturday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said eight people were wounded by gunfire in the northern West Bank town of Nablus. A Palestinian security official said seven members of the Islamic militant group Hamas were arrested. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

The Israel military said troops operated in the area, but it would not elaborate.

Some information for this report came from AP. [Read More]

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Source: VOA News: Economy and Finance