Israeli police say kill knife attacker in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: Israeli police shot dead a man who tried to stab one of them in East Jerusalem on Monday in what appeared to be the latest in a spate of Palestinian street attacks, police said.

Police described the alleged attacker as a "terrorist", but gave no more details on his identity. A police spokesperson said he attacked an Israeli trooper who tried to search him and whose protective vest prevented the knife from causing injury.

Read: Jew stabs four Arabs in southern Israel: police

The incident took place in a part of Jerusalem's Old City close to a site holy to both Muslims and Jews, where an increasing number of visits by Israelis has stirred Palestinian rancour that has contributed to the past two weeks' surge in violence.

Hamas’s chief in Gaza on Friday called violence that has hit the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem in recent days an “intifada” and urged further unrest.

“We are calling for the strengthening and increasing of the intifada… It is the only path that will lead to liberation,” Ismail Haniyeh said during a sermon for weekly Muslim prayers at a mosque in Gaza City.

“Gaza will fulfil its role in the Jerusalem intifada and it is more than ready for confrontation.”

Read: Hamas Gaza chief calls unrest a new 'intifada'

Hamas rules Gaza, the Palestinian enclave squeezed between Egypt and Israel and separated from the West Bank. Hamas remains deeply divided from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party.