A knife attacker has seriously wounded an Israeli border policeman before fellow officers killed the assailant, police said.



The 38-year-old Palestinian walked past two officers near the Damascus Gate into the Old City on Sunday and then yelled “Allahu Akbar” before stabbing one of them in the neck, wounding him.

Other officers opened fire at the attacker and shot him dead. Another knife was later found on his body.

Damascus Gate is the main entry point for Palestinians to the walled Old City of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

It brought to 99 the number of Palestinians killed in a wave of unrest since 1 October.

More than half of them have been alleged perpetrators of stabbing, shooting and car ramming attacks aimed at Israeli civilians and security forces.

The violence has also left 17 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean dead.

Attempts to ease the tensions, including a visit by US secretary of state John Kerry last week, have failed.

The violence erupted in Jerusalem amid tensions over the sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound but swiftly spread to the flashpoint southern West Bank city of Hebron where hundreds of Jewish settlers live under army guard among 200,000 Palestinians.

The army shut down the Dream radio station in the city earlier on Sunday, the third private broadcaster in Hebron it has closed, accusing them of stoking the violence.

An Israeli minister raised the threat last week of shutting down Palestinian public broadcasters too, charging that they were guilty of fanning the flames as well.