Knife-wielding Palestinian shot dead near Jerusalem: police
Police distributed a photograph of a knife and cleaver they said the slain suspect was carrying.
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli police shot dead a knife-wielding Palestinian who attempted to stab colleagues at an east Jerusalem checkpoint, a spokeswoman said on Saturday.
The 17-year-old assailant from the Al-Tur neighbourhood of annexed Arab east Jerusalem managed to get past one checkpoint but was brought down at a second near Al-Zaim without any police casualties, the spokeswoman said.
Police distributed a photograph of a knife and cleaver they said the slain suspect was carrying.
Jerusalem police commander Moshe Edri said the "determined actions" of security forces at the two checkpoints "saved lives."
Al-Zaim checkpoint, where the suspect was shot dead shortly before midnight (2100 GMT Friday), lies on the main highway east from Jerusalem.
The city has been shaken by a spate of deadly attacks by Palestinians since last October.
Earlier this month, an Israeli man was killed and a woman seriously wounded when a Palestinian driver deliberately rammed his car into a bus stop.
In March, five Israelis were wounded when a Palestinian drove into a group of pedestrians before getting out of his car to try to stab people.
In November, an Israeli border policeman was killed and several people wounded when a Palestinian drove his vehicle into passengers waiting at a tram stop.
A three-month Israeli-American was among two people killed in a similar attack in October.
Tensions have been running high in Jerusalem since the killings of Israeli and Palestinian captives in tit-for-tat kidnappings by Palestinian militants and Jewish extremists last summer.
