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The scene of what the Israel Police described as an attempted stabbing at Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, September 16, 2016. Credit: Magen David Adom spokesperson Published by Haaretz

An image shared by the Israeli army, allegedly showing a knife left behind after a car ramming attack on Friday. Credit: Israeli Army. Published by Maan News
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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces Friday shot and killed a Jordanian youth in occupied East Jerusalem after an alleged stab attack at Damascus Gate in the Old City.

Israeli police spokeswoman for Arabic media Luba al-Samri said in a statement that a “terrorist” attempted a stabbing attack on an Israeli border policeman outside Damascus Gate and was “neutralized” by Israeli forces, a term commonly used by Israeli authorities when Palestinians are shot dead at the scene of an attack or alleged attack.

A witness told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he didn't see the man attacking anyone before he was killed. When Israeli police officers suspected the man and and asked him to lift his shirt, he yelled "Allahu akbar" and was shot by one of the officers, the witness added.

Al-Samri added that the youth was a citizen of Jordan in his 20s and entered Palestine on Thursday via the Allenby Bridge crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. He was later identified as Said Amr, 28.

While the youth was initially reported as being Palestinian, it has not yet been made clear if he was a Palestinian citizen of Jordan.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld reported that the youth had three knives that he attempted to use while carrying out the attack, which the spokesman posted on his twitter account.

Rosenfeld also said that there were no Israeli injuries during the attack and Damasus Gate has been completely closed off.

The incident came less than 45 minutes before a Palestinian man was shot and killed, his fiancee shot and severely injured, after the two allegedly committed a car-ramming attack, injuring three Israeli civilians, in the occupied West Bank district of Hebron, according to the Israeli army.

Just a day prior, another Palestinian man was fatally shot while Israeli forces attempted to detain him in in the Hebron-area village of Beit Ula.
According to Ma’an documentation, 224 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis since a wave of unrest first swept across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel in October.

Rights groups have denounced what they have termed a "shoot-to-kill" policy by the Israeli forces, which they say has led to the death of numerous Palestinians who did not constitute a threat or who could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner.
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A Jordanian, two Palestinian attackers shot dead in two stabbing attempts in Jerusalem and Hebron and car-ramming attack in Kiryat Arba, Israeli forces say.

by Jack Khoury, Nir Hasson, Gili Cohen and Yotam Berger for Haaretz, Sep 16, 2016 6:12 PM

A Jordanian and two Palestinian attackers were killed on Friday in three unrelated attacks in Jerusalem, Hebron and the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba, Israeli forces said.

In Hebron, the military said, a Palestinian lightly wounded an Israeli soldier after stabbing him at Jilber Junction, near Tel Rumeida. The attacker was shot and killed.

Earlier in the afternoon, a Jordanian was shot after trying to stab Israeli Border Police officers in Jerusalem, the police said. He died in the incident. 

The police said the assailant, a resident of Jordan in his 20s, arrived at Damascus Gate from the Old City and charged at the officers with a knife in each hand while yelling "Allahu akbar" before he was shot. Another knife was later found on his person. 

A witness told Haaretz that the officers thought the man looked suspicious and asked him to lift his shirt. At this point the man yelled "Allahu akbar" and was shot by one of the officers. The witness however said he didn't see the man attacking anyone. 

Shortly after, two Palestinians, a man and a woman, were shot by Israelis soldiers after attempting to run over people standing at a bus stop near Elias Junction outside the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, the army said. The man died and the woman, his fiancée, was seriously wounded.
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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) --SEPT. 16, 2016 9:20 P.M. (UPDATED: SEPT. 16, 2016 9:34 P.M.)

After two Palestinians and one Jordanian were killed on Friday in separate incidents after they allegedly carried out attacks in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, an Israeli officer vowed that strict punishments would be imposed on Palestinian civilians residing in the villages from where the slain Palestinians originated.

Friday afternoon, Israeli forces shot and killed 18-year-old Moussa Muhammad Khaddour and critically wounded his fiancee Raghad Abdullah Abdullah Khaddour, also 18, at the entrance of the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba just outside of Hebron's Old City, after the two allegedly carried out a car ramming attack that left three Israeli civilians injured.

Raghad Khaddour was the sister of Majd Khaddour who was killed by Israeli forces at the same junction in June after attempting a car ramming attack.

Less than 45 minutes prior, a Jordanian citizen was shot and killed by Israeli forces after allegedly carrying out a stabbing attack outside Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem.

Hours later, another Palestinian man, who remained unidentified as of Friday evening, was shot and killed in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron’s Old City after reportedly stabbing and lightly injuring an Israeli soldier, just a short distance from the alleged car ramming attack in Kiryat Arba.

In a statement, Director of the Hebron district office for Israel's Coordinator of Israeli Government's Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Hariz Safadi said Israeli authorities could not rule out the possibility of imposing punitive measures in the villages where the slain Palestinians resided.

He added that the Israeli authorities had managed to “prove” the Khaddours had intended to carry out a car ramming attack and had ruled out the possibility that it was a road accident, without elaborating on how Israeli forces had come to the conclusion.

He said Israeli authorities "plan to impose punishments and security arrangements" on the Hebron-area village of Bani Naim, where the Khaddours were from, and its surrounding areas.

Safadi added that the attacks came after “a period of calm” in which Israeli forces provided "facilitation" for Palestinians, such as an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to move ahead with plans to build a gas pipeline to the Gaza Strip and an agreement allowing the PA to manage international postal services between the occupied Palestinian territory and the rest of the world.

Only a month ago, Israeli forces lifted a more than one-month military blockade on Bani Naim, imposed in July after a resident of the village killed a 13-year-old Israeli girl and wounded another Israeli in the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement. The Palestinian attacker was shot dead at the scene.

Following the siege of Bani Naim, the entire district of Hebron was also put under a military closure amid a massive manhunt for the suspect responsible for a shooting attack which left an Israeli man dead.

The manhunt was concluded when the gunman was killed after Israeli forces bombarded and destroyed a house while he was inside, by firing anti-tank missiles at the house and ultimately razing it to the ground with bulldozers.

The home of his accomplice, who was later arrested imprisoned by Israel, was also punitively demolished, leaving his entire family homeless.

Israeli forces also detained scores of Hebron residents in nightly raids, restricted movement for tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians living in the Hebron area, revoked Israeli travel permits for some 2,700 residents, and cut tax transfers collected by Israel on behalf of the PA in the wake of the attacks.

Since a wave of unrest spread across the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel that as of Friday left 226 Palestinians killed by Israelis and 32 Israelis killed by Palestinians, Israel has come under harsh international condemnation for its response to attacks, which rights groups have said amounted to “collective punishment” and represents a clear violation of international law.

The Hebron area in particular grew as the epicenter of upheaval, with Israeli authorities severely restricting the movement of Palestinians by declaring the area of Tel Rumeida and other parts of the Old City as a "closed military zone" for several months in November amid dozens of incidents in which more than 40 Palestinians were killed, while July’s closures on Hebron saw the most widespread restrictions on movement in the occupied West Bank in two years.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently unveiled a "carrot stick" policy toward Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, whereby harsher punishment would be imposed upon families and villages from which "terrorists" originate, while economic benefits would be granted to areas that "have not produced terrorists."

“We will implement a differential policy in Judea and Samaria,” Lieberman said last month, using an Israeli term for the West Bank. “Its purpose is to continue to give benefits to those who desire co-existence with us and make life difficult for those who seek to harm Jews.”

"Anyone who is prepared for co-existence will prosper, while those who opt for terrorism will lose.”

During a raid into the Hebron-area town of Sair earlier this month, when Israeli forces reportedly threatened to detain a 10-month-old girl, soldiers hung a written warning on the front door of her family’s home that read: “In the wake of destructive attacks coming from your area against civilians, the Israeli defense forces and the Israeli security forces will operate with increased effort against terrorists and against anyone involved in such activity,” in what seemed to be among the first reported implementations of Lieberman's new policy.