Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man after an attempted stabbing attack on an Israeli bus in northwest Jerusalem on Monday evening, Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said. Rosenfeld said an Israeli soldier was lightly wounded in the attack before the Palestinian was shot dead.

Israeli media reported that the Palestinian was shot and killed after he attempted and failed to take the Israeli soldier’s gun, before attacking the soldier with a knife.
The attack reportedly occurred under the Chords Bridge in northwest Jerusalem.

The Palestinian was the third to be shot dead by Israeli forces following an alleged stabbing attack in Jerusalem on Monday, in one of four reported attacks. Just hours before the incident, two Israelis were seriously injured in another alleged attack, with one Palestinian suspect, reportedly a minor, shot dead at the scene, and another wounded, Israeli police said.

Earlier, a Palestinian teenager, reportedly a schoolgirl, was shot and seriously injured after she allegedly carried out an attack that injured two Israelis in East Jerusalem near the Israeli police headquarters. On Monday morning, Israeli forces shot and killed Mustafa Adel al-Khatib, 18, after he allegedly attempted to stab a border police officer, although witnesses have disputed that he was involved in any attack.

The latest death brings the total number of Palestinians killed to 27 since the beginning of October. The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health said Sunday that Israeli forces have shot more than 1,300 Palestinians with live and rubber-coated bullets since the beginning of this month.

Fierce clashes have kept up unabated since the beginning of the month, prompted by Israeli army and settler reprisals after four Israelis were killed in two separate attacks at the beginning of October. However, tensions had mounted for weeks, particularly over tight restrictions on Palestinians seeking to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound — the third holiest site in Islam — during a succession of Jewish holidays.

The Palestinian human rights group al-Haq warned on Saturday that the occupied Palestinian territories stood “on the brink.” The group blamed “Israel’s wanton and excessive use of force against Palestinians, with no accountability for the deaths they cause” for the high death toll. MAAN