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Photos:
Israeli forces and emergency services gather around the body of a Palestinian after he carried out a stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City on October 3, 2015. (AFP/Ahmad Gharabli)

A general view of Jerusalem's Old City is seen on April 14, 2014. (AFP/Thomas Coex/File)

Mohanned Shafiq al-Halabi, 19. (Uncredited)
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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Two Israelis were killed and two others injured, including a two-year-old infant, in an attack in Jerusalem's Old City carried out Saturday by a Palestinian who was subsequently shot dead, Israeli police and medics said.

Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said the Palestinian stabbed and possibly opened fire on the Israelis at the Old City's Lion's Gate.

Witnesses told Ma'an that the Palestinian took a gun from one of his victims and fired at Israeli police when they arrived, before he was shot dead.

A spokesperson at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem told Ma'an that a 40-year-old Israeli man was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital, which was also treating a two-year-old child.

The child was lightly injured in the leg, and Rosenfeld said it appeared he may have been shot.

The other fatality succumbed to his wounds at Hadassah hospital, where a woman who was reported as being in serious condition was also being treated.

Three of the four were reportedly members of the same family, and all four were reported as being ultra-Orthodox.

Rosenfeld initially said Israeli police"neutralized" the Palestinian, but added that he had "no idea" whether he was killed or injured.

Israeli medics later confirmed to Ma'an that the Palestinian was pronounced dead on scene.

Israeli police named him as Mohannad Shafiq Halabi, aged 19, from a village near Ramallah in the West Bank.

Islamic Jihad later claimed him as one of their members, although they did not claim responsibility for the attack.
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by Celine Hagbard - IMEMC & Agencies

A Palestinian man was shot to death by Israeli police after allegedly stabbing to death an armed Israeli, grabbing the gun of a settler who intervened, then killing an additional person and wounding two others in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The attacker was identified as Mohanned Shafiq al-Halabi, 19, from Al-Bireh town, near Ramallah.

According to the police, the assailant shot at them with a gun he had grabbed from one of the wounded.

The victims are reportedly all members of the same ultra-Orthodox family. A forty year old man was pronounced dead at the scene, while a woman was listed in critical condition in Hadassah medical center in Jerusalem.

A two year old was reportedly mildly injured, and was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Following the attack, Israeli police stormed the Old City, ransacking shops and forcing Palestinians out of the area around the Lion's Gate, where the attack took place.

This assault comes after weeks of escalating attacks by the Israeli military and settlers in the Old City of Jerusalem, specifically targeting the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site of Islam.

Palestinians under age 50 have been barred from the area this entire week, as the Jewish festival of Sukkot, commemorating seven days of harvest and remembering the years that Jews spent wandering in the desert after escaping slavery in Egypt.

The attack comes amid high tensions in Jerusalem after clashes between police and Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound [Al Jazeera]
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from al-Jazeera:

Two Israeli men have been killed and a woman and her son injured in a stabbing attack by a Palestinian man in Jerusalem's Old City.

The group was attacked on Saturday night by a man who was later shot and killed by the Israeli border police near the Lions' Gate in Jerusalem.

Israeli police confirmed that the Palestinian, 19-year-old Muhannad Halabi, was from al-Bireh, a Palestinian city adjacent to Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, 15km north of Jerusalem.

An initial police investigation said that the suspect stabbed several people, then took a gun from one of the wounded and fired at tourists and police officers, the AP news agency reported. He was then shot dead by police.

In a separate attack, a few hours later on Sunday morning, a Palestinian man was shot dead by police after he stabbed an Israeli teenager in the Bab Al-Amoud area of Jerusalem.

The 15-year-old was rushed to the Shaare Zedek Medical Centre with moderate knife wounds to his chest and back.

Reports from the West Bank say there have been repeated clashes overnight between Palestinians and the Israeli army in the vicinity of Halabi's house.

Israeli soldiers evacuated the al-Aqsa Mosque compound after arresting at least 40 worshippers following the first attack.

Government criticized

Nickolay E Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, condemned the Halabi attack on his Twitter account.

"I condemn the brutal terror attack that killed two Israelis in Jerusalem, call on all to stand firm against incitement, prevent escalation," he wrote.

In the wake of the first attack, Israeli politicians criticised the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of security in the country.

Isaac Herzog, the leader of the opposition Zionist Union, said: "Netanyahu has lost control over the security of Israeli citizens and Jerusalem."

Former government minister Avigdor Lieberman said: "This is what losing control and deterrence looks like."

Netanyahu, who is on his way back from a trip to the US, called on an urgent cabinet meeting to take place on Sunday to discuss measures following the incident.

The attacks come amid high tensions in Jerusalem after clashes between police and Palestinians at the flashpoint al-Aqsa Mosque compound.