Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian teenager after stabbing attack

Israeli border guards on Saturday shot dead a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem's Old City after he reportedly stabbed and lightly wounded three Israelis, police said.

According to spokesperson Luba Samri, the 17-year-old attacked two Jewish passers-by before fleeing and later wounding a border guard before he was shot dead.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the teenager as Ahmad Zahir Fathi Ghazal from Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.

An eyewitness told Palestinian Ma'an News that he saw Ghazal stab "two settlers" on al-Wad street in the Old City and escape into a nearby building, before Israeli forces ambushed him in a small apartment, which had no alternate exit.

"Then we heard sounds of intensive shooting coming from the building," he said.

"They could have detained him - he was surrounded by a large number of soldiers. But they executed him."

Clashes broke out afterwards between stone-throwing Palestinians and police officers who used stun grenades, an AFP photographer said.

It was the second such attack in days near Damascus Gate, a main entrance to the Old City.

On Wednesday, a Palestinian woman said to be the mother of a man killed last year tried to stab Israeli police with scissors before being shot dead.

A wave of violence that broke out in October 2015 has claimed the lives of 259 Palestinians, 40 Israelis, two Americans, one Jordanian, an Eritrean and a Sudanese national.

Human rights groups have accused Israeli security forces of using excessive force to subdue attackers in certain cases, most of which have been carried out by lone-wolf assailants, many of them young.

Reviews by the army of two fatal shootings of attackers in October found that the use of deadly force could have been avoided.

Palestinians say the rise in knife attacks on Israeli soldiers is rooted in frustration stemming from nearly five decades of Israeli military occupation Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Agencies contributed to this report.