Israeli troops kill Jordanian, two Palestinians after alleged attacks

Israeli forces in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank killed two Palestinians and a Jordanian national on Friday after they allegedly attempted to carry out violent attacks.

In the first incident, Israeli forces opened fire on a man, later identified as Saeed Amro, a 28-year-old Jordanian national, in the Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, killing him on the spot.

Local sources told The New Arab that Israeli troops "shot a hail of bullets at the young man who was walking close to the city’s Damascus Gate, and left him to bleed on the ground for a long time".

Israeli police and soldiers closed the area off and did not allow Palestinians near the scene, the sources added.

Israeli police in a statement said Amro was shot dead after he attempted to stab a police officer.  

Shortly afterwards, two Palestinians travelling in a car were shot by Israeli forces, one of them fatally, near the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military said the pair carried out a ramming attack on a bus stop used by Israeli settlers, causing light injuries to three settlers.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the dead Palestinian as Firas Khadour, while local sources named the wounded alleged attacker, a woman, as Raghad Khadour.

She was taken to hospital in serious condition after being shot in the stomach.

Kiryat Arba is an Israeli settlement in the southern West Bank close to the flashpoint Palestinian city of Hebron.

In the third incident, a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops after allegedly stabbing an Israeli soldier in Hebron.

Following the attack the main roads into and out of Hebron were closed off.

A fourth man was killed overnight Thursday, also in Hebron, after Israeli forces raided him home.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian medical official said troops at the border fence east of Gaza City shot and slightly wounded three Palestinian youths.

An army spokeswoman claimed the youths had been rioting.

Since October, 227 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, one Eritrean and a Sudanese have been killed in ongoing violence.