The Palestinian health ministry says a 37-year-old man has been shot dead by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron.

The Israeli military says its troops opened fire Tuesday on a man who was lunging toward them with a kitchen knife near a military post in Hebron in an attempted stabbing attack. The man's father, Fawzi Sheaki, denied his son Yasser was trying to stab anyone and was merely at his job in the city's Islamic court.

Since 2015, Palestinians have killed over 50 Israelis in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks, and Israeli forces have killed more than 260 Palestinians in that same period.

Israel has described most of the Palestinians killed as attackers, but occasional clashes between protesters and soldiers have also turned deadly.