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Jordanian stabs Israeli officer in Jerusalem, shot dead: Police

Police identify the assailant as Mohammad Skaji, a 57-year-old Jordanian who 'entered Israel a few days ago'
Israeli policemen and Palestinian onlookers gather at the scene of a reported stabbing attack by a female Palestinian at Damascus Gate, a main entrance to Jerusalem's Old City, on 7 May 2017 (AFP)
By AFP

A Jordanian man stabbed and wounded an Israeli officer in annexed East Jerusalem on Saturday before being shot dead, police said.

The officer was taken to hospital with "moderate" injuries after the attack in the walled Old City, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

Police identified the assailant as Mohammad Skaji, a 57-year-old Jordanian who the statement said had "entered Israel a few days ago".

They said he brandished a knife and stabbed the policeman in one of the alleys of the Old City before the wounded officer, who had just come off duty, shot him dead.

Two Israeli passers-by tried to help the policeman, police added.

A wave of unrest that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of 263 Palestinians, 41 Israelis, two Americans, two Jordanians, an Eritrean, a Sudanese and a Briton, according to an AFP count.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, the Israeli authorities say.

Others were shot dead during protests or clashes, while some were killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

The violence has subsided in recent months.

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