Israeli police kill two Palestinians in al-Quds

OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS: A suspected assailant was shot dead by Israeli soldiers after injuring three young men with his car in the southern West Bank on Saturday, the army and medics said.

Also, they shot dead an Arab who they said ‘grabbed’ a gun from an officer and fired it in a scuffle at Jerusalem´s Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The army said a “terrorist” had conducted a “ramming attack adjacent to the town of Beit Ummar” before being neutralised, with a spokesperson confirming to AFP the presumed assailant´s death.

Magen David Adom medics said the three men were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem with serious, moderate and light wounds.

There were no immediate details on the suspected assailant.

Earlier, the Israeli police shot dead an Arab man who they said grabbed a gun from an officer and fired it in a scuffle at Jerusalem´s Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The dead man was identified as 26-year-old medical student Mohammed al-Asibi, a resident of the Bedouin village of Hura, in southern Israel.

Asibi´s family has disputed the police account of his death and demanded to see CCTV footage, local media said, with police saying there was none.

The incident follows a relative lull in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the start of Ramadan, and comes amid fears of a flare-up during the holy Muslim month.

Passers-by reported hearing gunfire, and an AFP photographer saw scores of Israeli police deployed in the Old City at around 1:00 am (2200 GMT on Friday).

Raam, the Israeli parliament’s Islamist party, rejected the police´s account of events, noting in a Facebook post the claims from “witnesses” who said Asibi came to aid a woman who was in a scuffle with police.

Mansour Abbas, Raam´s head, questioned the authorities’ response that there was no footage of the alleged attack.