A Palestinian man was shot dead while attempting to attack a worshipper and police officers near Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday evening.

According to the Israel Police, the police officers saw the assailant run toward a Jewish man and try to attack him, knocking him to the ground. The assailant then ran toward the policemen while waving a sharp object with the intent of attacking them the police said.

Open gallery view The assailant, Mohammed Yusuf Sha'aban Alian.

The incident occurred on Hanevi'im Street, near Damascus Gate. According to the police, the assailant was a 26-year-old man from Qalandiya refugee camp in the West Bank, and was in Israel illegaly. It is unclear what object the assailant was holding in a video distributed by police, though the police also released a photograph of a screwdriver marked as evidence.

Qalandiya's Fatah branch issued a statement after the incident and identified the attacker as Mohammed Yusuf Sha'aban Alian, age 26. The Israel Police said "the extensive deployment of police forces in Jerusalem as well as the policemen's alertness prevented an attack that could have resulted in serious consequences."

The incident comes two days after Ari Fuld, a 40-year-old Israeli-American resident of Efrat, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian teen at the entrance to a mall near the West Bank's Gush Etzion Junction. After being stabbed, Fuld managed to shoot and wound the terrorist, 17-year-old Khalil Jabarin from the West Bank village of Yatta.